


From a Once Great Unkindness

by AiyaNova



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Origin Story, Team as Family, as best as it can be, canon violence, just for fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-08-24 10:43:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16638419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AiyaNova/pseuds/AiyaNova
Summary: STRQ backstory from a Branwen POV. Predominantly Raven. Totally for shoots and toots.--Dangerous.She listened to the team’s laughter and small talk and it gave rise to a joy in her. This place was warmth, it was a home. And she knew she could not build a life on its foundations.She had never failed a mission before.She would not fail this one.





	1. Point of Entry

**Author's Note:**

> I literally crawled from a Grimm pool to write this story. It's been a minute but I am having a TON of fun with this! 
> 
> In keeping with the spirt of the show, I've tried to stick to its style and tone as much as possible, give or take a few flourishes for drama and fun here and there. This is going to be a pretty standard origin story. Team-bonding, lots of one-liners, plenty of RWBY-style angst, younger?!Ozpin, absolutely bonkers action scenes.

_Six Years After_

_The feathers were the first thing she noticed._

_They came down achingly slow. Black against the red of the sky around her. She bowed her head as they lit on the ground, her fingers slipping on the hilt of her sword. Beads of sweat lacquered her forehead._

_There was nothing they could do._

_She looked up at the beasts that labored along the field of stone. At the jagged peaks that rose in the distance they circled; at the pools of shadow their claws slipped out from, grappling for purchase on the bone-dry ground. She shook. Not just her hands. All of her. She thought of fire and the memory of it offered a warmth that did not spread far._

_All of this had been so simple once._

_Someone shouted but she ignored the sound and stared ahead at the army of black that was descending on them. Hopeless. All of it. She’d let the seeds of that doubt spread long ago. It had been blooming in her for years. And now she was here to reap the harvest._

_“Raven!” She did not turn. “We have to go!”_

_She almost laughed. It didn’t matter anymore, did it? None of it did. There had never been an escape. There had only ever been running._

_And her wings would never take her far enough._

* * *

 

Beacon Academy stood taller than either of them expected. Its spires rose against the nearly cloudless sky, surrounded by a series of curling walkways under which stood groups of students thick with gossip and laughter and anticipation. There was an ease in the air.

Raven hated it.

She regarded the students with the same irritation she reserved for the more incompetent members of her tribe. And, often enough, her brother.

“Kinda…sprawling, eh?” Qrow came to stand at her side, leaning back with hands clasped behind his head. Raven quickly smacked an arm back to snap into his stomach.

“Stand straight. We’re supposed to be proper huntresses.”

Qrow gave a soft “oomph” at the impact and side-eyed her, exhaling. “Right. But we’re still kids. Better we fit in acting like that. Too much effort and we’ll look like we’re trying too hard. Slippery slope, and all that.”

“I don't think that’s what that means.”

“Eh.” Qrow shrugged and stepped forward, hands re-clasped behind his head. Raven watched him walk towards a group of students with a casualness she found hard to understand. She did not follow him. Raven had spent plenty of time researching Beacon's teachers, its history, its rules, its heroes and well-regarded alumni.Qrow had showed little to no interest in understanding such things. His art of learning, as he put it, was to “infiltrate through camaraderie.”

She studied the towers of the Academy, noting the designs she’d learned about, the additional wings constructed as enrollment had increased, the architectural flourishes that attempted be more welcoming for prospective students. It was easy to see this as simply a school. It was also easy to see it as more. She broke her focus on the towers and strode towards Qrow. He had made the group react to something and one of them—a girl in uniform—buckled over in laughter. He joined in before catching sight of Raven lurking behind. He nodded a farewell to the students and joined her.

“What’d they have to say?” Raven looked down at her bitten nails.

Qrow sighed as they moved along the road, hands slipping into his pockets.“Nothing. Asked where we came from. What school we attended.”

“The basics. Let’s keep a lower profile, Qrow. The less attention on us, the better.”

“I dunno…” He glanced over his shoulder with a wry smile. “I think this’ll be fun.”

Raven stopped. She exhaled a long-held breath and turned to her brother. His easy smile fell away. “We aren’t here to make friends. We aren’t here to have fun. We’re here to learn and to fight.”

Qrow studied her. “Rae, we’re allowed to play this how we want to, right? So let me handle things how I handle things, and you can handle things like you handle things. We agreed on that much. Besides,” he thumbed over at the group he had just left, “they’ll give more information when they like you.”

“You’re handling this like a joke.”

Qrow snickered. “Because it is.”

Raven shook her head and strode forward, ignoring him. They’d had this very argument on the way here. Multiple times. They’d had this argument with the Elders, at least he had, and Raven had had to shut him up before he’d earned himself, or both of them, a lesson in disobedience. He thought this entire mission pointless, the Elders thought it essential, and Raven thought it…unusual. It wasn’t as if huntsmen and huntresses were entirely responsible for the tribe’s raiding failures. But it was always better to go along with the Elders than not. Always.

Qrow gave a whistle at her side, looking up as they neared the massive statue outside of the Academy. A huntsman and huntress atop a boulder, the former raising a sword in proud victory. An ursa hung beneath, claws extended and mouth open.“Impressive.” Qrow noted, arms crossed before his chest. He watched two students pass them, talking softly as they eyed the twins with uncertainty. Raven glowered at them and they quickly moved on ahead. Qrow shook his head with a small chuckle. “You’re going to scare everyone away.”

“That’s the point.”

He shrugged and walked on. Raven remained studying the statue. Carved almost a century ago by a somewhat unknown artist who had been commissioned by the headmaster at the time to accurately represent the Academy’s mission. It showed its age in only minuscule manners, with some blackened edges and a slightly chipped leg of a Grimm. She moved closer to the plaques that circumvented it, all bearing the names of huntresses and huntsmen who had fallen in battle. The best the school had produced. Ranks she had no doubts she and Qrow could join, hopefully without the dying clause.

“Hey!” Qrow shouted. He held a hand out to beckon her forward. "Or did you just want to brood in front of that thing all day?"

She shot him a glare but ignored the jab and turned back to the statue. Huntsmen and huntresses. Heralded as the only ones standing between humanity and total annihilation at the claws of the Grimm.

Weak. All of them. Coddled in academies and knowing nothing of the world that had raised Raven and her brother. Realizing all too late that true darkness didn’t lay within the Grimm.

It was here her brother and her would become heroes.

And it was here they’d learn how to kill them.


	2. Forget What You Know About Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: hints of some violence outside of a fighting-Grimm scenario. Present in the italicized flashback. Those bandits can be real meanies, dude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RWBY is such a rule of cool show it might as well be written into the universe's laws. "Is this practical? No. But is it cool? Aye. Then so it shall be!"
> 
> A little heavy here at the end. Oof.
> 
> Enjoy, everyone!

Qrow didn’t like crowds. He liked people well enough—certain people—but he didn’t like crowds. There was a very good reason for that.

So when they entered the large entrance hall set up to welcome the incoming and rising classes, he chafed silently at the size of the crowd. Raven noted his discomfort and elbowed him gently in the side. “Stop looking so nervous.”

“I’m not nervous, I’m just…surprised.”

“Try not to be.” She sighed, sympathizing with his real concern. “Remember Armon’s training.”

Qrow nodded but the reminder was a small comfort. They’d hardly ever ventured into a city before, and the Academy was very much like a city. The forest camp had been their home for years. And even there, the biggest gatherings held a fraction of the people present now. Their raids usually consisted of small traveling caravans, ships the’d downed, small towns after or during Grimm attacks—nothing too populous. He could always wander into the forest if he ever felt too uncomfortable, which was often enough.

It took a few minutes for them to find a spot before the empty stage, and an even longer time spent waiting for more students to pour in. They had both straggled on purpose. Qrow checked the time on his scroll, growing bored. When the lights began to dim the twins glanced around as the voices of their fellow students grew hushed and muddled. The stage ahead gained a sharp luminescence. The man who walked onto it sent a chill up Raven’s spine.

Headmaster Ozpin.

Youngest headmaster of any of the Academies. Maybe two decades older than either of them, at most, and yet still holding a cane as if he were of a more distinguishable age. She’d heard talk that he’d been injured during a battle and had never fully recovered. It was a truth she didn’t regard as such. She studied him closely as the room grew into an even greater silence. He was the strange singularity in this whole plan. Perceptive, hard to read, and somewhat…distant. And not in a way that reassured Raven he’d leave them alone, but in a way that made her think he was almost too focused on the particularities of things. Qrow stiffened at her side when Ozpin scanned the room. His gaze held onto the two of them for a moment longer than it did the other students. Raven met it.

There was nothing to give them away. They’d aced the entrance exams, perhaps a bit too well, but she’d read about students who’d done that often enough. Their lies were thorough. The trail the Elders had laid out had been carefully planned albeit a bit fantastical. She elbowed Qrow as the man began to speak, his look falling away from them, and her brother leaned down wordlessly so she could whisper in his ear.

“He’s got us pegged.”

“Well, yeah.” Qrow’s shoulders shifted with a silent laugh. “We blew the entire entering class’s exam scores out of the water.”

“ _I_ did, at least.”

“On paper, maybe. But _I_ made the practical exam look like—”

“Hey!” A hand reached out to Qrow’s shoulder and he turned slightly, almost affronted at the hand on him. The man behind him was broad-shouldered, clean cut, and tall. Almost as tall a Qrow. He held a finger before his lips.

Qrow shrugged and turned back to the stage. The man’s hand fell away and Qrow had the strong urge to wipe at the spot it had been. He offered a small glare to Raven, who ignored it, as the Headmaster droned on. They both fixed onto the tail end of the short speech with well concealed boredom.

“—And so we will teach you, here at Beacon Academy, that you can reach the heights of your greatest potential if you’re willing to let go of all you know about heroes, about victory, and about strength.” Raven resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “If you can do that, you can perhaps become something greater than the sum of your parts. A true huntsmen or huntress, not a hero or one worthy of glory but a person to protect, above all else, those around you.” He smiled at the crowd. “I wish you all the best of luck.”

The lights came on but there was a small spark as one failed to light. Headmaster Ozpin looked up at it, head cocked, and the students murmured as it flickered and went out. Raven glanced at Qrow as the crowds began to dissolve into muttered conversations and disperse. Her brother only offered a half-hearted smile.

—

“Typical.” Qrow said as he and Raven strolled through the halls to reach the temporary room for the freshman, in which they’d already deposited their meager possessions, with his hands in his pockets. “Stupid speech to inspire stupid kids.”

“I thought you liked them.”

“I pretend to like them.” Qrow gestured. “There’s an operational difference.”

Raven smirked but did not respond. The wide windows at their side welcomed in a great amount of sunlight. It was almost peaceful. And not for the first time, Raven wondered on the students of this school and the worlds that had raised them. Most of her first observations had been that they’d been all rather well-off. Parents probably paying tuition, their old academies likely just as well-regarded as this one. Beautiful gardens and soft, quiet towns. She thought of shadows gathered by fire and the Elders, of the men and women who’d raised them with fists and steel and blood. Her hand fell to her sword’s hilt. Crafted particularly for this occasion almost two years ago. Her brothers too.

She knew their first night would offer them no privacy to discuss their plan of action. They’d have to keep their conversation reasonably coded and inconspicuous. When they entered the large room that would house them that night some of the other students were gathered in groups near their sleeping mats, which had once been lined up neatly in rows. Raven and Qrow had dragged theirs quietly away from the rest, to a corner of the room, and noted with some relief that plenty of students grouped up as well.

When they were set in their corner, each of them sitting cross-legged on a rolled out sleeping bag, Qrow looked down at the slim metal of his scroll and spoke. “Lips are largely sealed on how initiation works. Classes are general the first year, but we obviously specialize later. If the Headmaster’s taken an interest in us, we’re going to have to either warrant that or deflect it.”

“Warrant it until it’s convenient. Then we’ll plateau.” Raven smirked, her own scroll at her side. “I hope that doesn’t prove too difficult for you.”

“Boring.” Qrow said without looking up at her. “Not difficult. We also don’t know how teams are formed. But…”

“I know the plan.” Raven said softly.

“Right. So tomorrow I guess the real fun starts.” He set his scroll aside and laid back against the wall with a sigh, hands curled behind his head. Raven fixed her gaze on the window and a black bird that fluttered past the glare of the sun. They had the rest of the day to freely roam the school, grab lunch, and set up their lockers. They’d both attend to that schedule at a leisurely pace.

“We need to start trying to understand our peers. Find the best of them...” She said.

“I’m starting to think we might _be_ the best.”

Raven snorted. “Pathetic if that’s true.”

“Hm.” Qrow sat up. He grabbed at his scroll. “Have you noticed any so far?”

“That’ll take some time. We don’t know anyone’s capabilities.”

Qrow pinned her with a focus red gaze. “I think we should be more focused on our…”, he extended a hand out, “compatibility with them.”

“That’s largely irrelevant.”

“It’s not. Rae, these teams are for keeps. We’re going to have to deal with these mooks for four years.”

Raven glanced down at the sleeping pad, away from her brother and the sun and her scroll. Four years. Four years of pretending to have the backs of their classmates. Four years pretending to be here to kill Grimm. As if they weren’t already well versed in that. “Then we better choose carefully.”

Years of training. Almost a year of knowing the truth of that training. And now, playing nice with the rest of her class was going to prove to be the hardest part of that charge. She was grateful Qrow at least retained some charisma. She could defer to him in social situations that exhausted her until she built up enough of a read on the person to interact…accordingly.

There was a soft thud as her small, unzipped bag rolled off its perch on the table beside them and spilled out across the floor. She glared at her brother. “I don’t know if I can resist not killing you for four years.”

Qrow laughed. “You’ve managed to not kill me for seventeen, right? What’s four more?”

* * *

 Before Beacon

_The fire was bright._

_Raven sat on her heels before the small metal hearth, staring into the flames as if they could take her focus off of this meeting. Qrow was at her side, cross-legged and leaning back with palms on the rug. He was looking down at the designs whirled into it, worn from years of sitting and stepping. A bruise bloomed under his left eye._

_“We need to make sure they’re ready.” Hale was a big man. He spoke with a deep baritone and his Grimm mask covered his face and the scars that lined his pit of a nose. The other four Elders wore similar masks; all were composed to look like Grimm. It was supposed to instill fear in the hearts of those they captured or attacked. An idea they’d held for years. Raven glanced up at them, sucking in a breath to grant her strength._

_“With all due respect, Elder Hale, we’ve been training for years.” She said._

_“And you’ve both gotten better, no argument there. But this is a…delicate operation.”_

_“Who are our other options?” Elder Ivory made herself know with a slow drawl. “There aren’t any children in this tribe more fit to be huntresses than these two.”_

_“Huntsmen.” Elder Rai corrected and Ivory’s Nevermore mask turned to him._

_“And why?”_

_“Tell me, Raven, do you feel prepared?” Hale diffused the tension with a question aimed at the eldest Branwen. Raven looked down at her gloved hands. She was shaking slightly. She curled her fingers in to hide the tremors and met Hale’s pitiless gaze._

_“I do.”_

_Hale turned. “And you, Qrow?”_

_“Whatever you need, Elders.” It sounded tired._

_Ivory made a “hmph” and it shook her shoulders slightly. Affronted. Raven bristled with the urge to shove her brother out the tent’s fabric opening. They didn’t need anger directed at them, they needed to prove that they were ready. She felt her nails dig into her palm._

_“We’re ready.”_

_Hale made a small sound that was neither a disagreement nor an approval. He looked around at the Elders gathered. “Does anyone dissent to the allowance of their training?” No one said anything and so Hale fixed them both under his Ursa mask, the eyes dark and empty. “You’ll leave at the month’s end.”_

_—_

_The crickets were loud this time of year. Qrow stood outside by the edge of the tree line, nursing a small cup of tea. His shoulders were hunched. Raven stood on the threshold of the tent, her hand parting the fabric from the doorway. She stepped down quietly and came to his side._

_“Do you want to lose your other eye?”_

_Qrow gave a single soft chuckle. “I didn’t lose an eye.”_

_“Well you’re going to if you keep acting like that in front of them.”_

_Qrow was quiet a moment. He looked down at his tea. The steam was still curling from it. Fall was looming over them with a quickly departing summer. The air was crisp and the winds that pushed through the thick foliage of the trees were harsher. “I’m just tired.”_

_Raven lowered her voice. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “We have a month left. When we prove ourselves at Beacon we can come back and they’ll have to respect us. We can come back and wear the masks_ ourselves. Us, together, _running the tribe. We’ll change things, Qrow, for the better.”_

_Her brother was silent again. The bruise under his eye brought up a well of rage in her that she tried to keep from spilling over. Qrow was an idiot, but he was her idiot. And sometimes he was right. She drew her hand back, weary. “We’ll have each other, right?” It’s what they’d always truly had. Even if leaving the tribe would hurt some, as it was the only home they'd had, it would mean learning enough to come back with an essentiality that would guarantee both of them protection. It would keep them both safe. More powerful._

_“Right.” Qrow took a sip._

_“And that’s what matters.”_

 

 


	3. "Chuck Us Off a Cliff?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beacon Academy: chucking kids off cliffs since 1965. I took some liberty here with weapon designs and fight scenes and...did they have scrolls back then? SUre I guess! Scrolls for everyone!

“All right.” Raven and Qrow sat in the dining hall, pouring over books as a guise for their real discussion. “I think we’ve narrowed down some potentials.” She tapped at her scroll. She’d largely ignored her breakfast, as had Qrow, and they settled in a quiet corner at the end of the table, away from most of the groups and the duos that sat around the massive hall. Qrow sat back in his chair, tipping it to rest on two of its legs, his feet up on the table.

“Hm.” His red eyes moved over the room, sharp, as they scanned for fellow initiates looking eager and nervous. There were plenty of them expressing both at the same time. “I managed to do some digging last night. There’s the big guy, Virid, he’s a bruiser if I ever saw one.”

“Already have him.” Raven noted.

“Right. There’s the quiet one in red.”

“Her name’s Vermillion. I have her too.”

“Fitting.” Qrow rolled his eyes. “And Ember?”

“Yes. I’m especially intrigued by him. Seems his semblance is almost as terrible as yours.”

“My semblance isn’t terrible, it’s…” He tipped back a bit too far and gave a small yelp as he toppled onto his back. The sound of the fallen chair reverberated across the room. Focus fell to them. Cackles erupted and Raven glanced around with narrowed eyes before turning to look down at her brother with a smirk.

“…what were you going to say?”

“A-are you all right?” A voice came from behind him. Qrow turned, a hand rubbing at his head, to see a girl behind him. She’d been walking by when it fell and now came to bend down besides him. She offered a hand he did not take.

“Yeah.” Qrow managed as he stood. The girl moved to right his chair. “Just…some bad luck.”

“They’re not very…sturdy chairs, I guess.” The girl said.

“Right. Sturdy.” He moved to sit but when she did not leave he smiled at her. “Thanks, uh…”

“Summer.” The girl said. Her voice was quiet, soft, but confident. Raven immediately hated it. “Summer Rose. Are you a new student too?”

“Uh, yeah…” Qrow said. “Qrow. Qrow Branwen. That’s my sister Raven. She’s…a bit shy.”

The girl named Summer stared at her. She nodded and smiled at them both in turn, seemingly unaffected by the undercurrent of chill in Raven’s glare. “Right. Are you two from around here? I didn’t grow up in Vale so, I’m a bit…out of my element. Which primary did you got to?”

“Oh, we didn’t…we had separate training.”

“Oh.” Summer lingered for a moment and Raven could feel the curiosity radiating off of her. She almost drew her hand down her face. “Well…it was nice meeting you two.”

“Sure, yeah.” Qrow waved vaguely as she left, still maintaining a slightly bashful exterior. When he turned back to Raven it became stone cold.

“She’s the other interest.” He took his seat.

“Yes, but not for a teammate. She’s entirely unremarkable in that respect.”

“Seems gullible enough, though.” Qrow suggested. Raven ignored him.

“They’re all going to be gullible.” Raven flipped a finger along her scroll, shifting the page down to the bottom. She used her other hand to pop a single grape into her mouth from her neglected plate. “If the team assignments are a combat-based exercise, we may have some luck in choosing. I vote Vermillion and Ember.”

Qrow glanced down the table across the room to find the two prospects. Vermillion was a small fox Faunus draped in an orange-brown cloak. She’d seemed to keep largely to herself. Ember was a tall, thin young man with hair in thick braids that sat on his shoulders. He wore silver and red accents. He was tall, friendly enough, and…brooding. “I’ve been thinking, Raven, aren’t we being too…” He cocked his head to side, narrowing his eyes, “specific to a power scale?”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t they going to balance teams? Isn’t that the point?”

“Then who do you suggest?”

“I say we screw the capabilities and pick who we think we’ll get along best with. Who won’t do us dirty. Dumb kids,” he nodded to Summer, who had resumed her seat with a small group at the far end of the table, “like that one.”

“Why? You want to throw all of our potential out the window to pick people you think we’ll _like?_ What’s wrong with Vermillion and Ember?

“I would phrase it differently. And it’s not that, I just think we’re planning for something that isn’t supposed to be…planned for.” There was a shouting from the far corner, calling for students in the first year to gather in the courtyard. Raven slipped her scroll into the pocket of her skirt and rose.

“And what do you think it’ll be?” She eyed her brother.

Qrow studied the leaving students. He shrugged. “I just have a feeling it’s going to complicate things.”

—

“Chuck us off a cliff?” Qrow gaped at the student beside him. “You’re kidding.”

“Well, they expect us to land.” The boy scratched at his head. “…somehow.”

“Somehow. Right. That’s reassuring.” Qrow glanced down at the launching mechanism at his feet. He’d seen plenty of strange training exercises within the tribe, but literally ~~yeeting~~ throwing students off of the sides of cliffs as a way to make their partnerships seemed…almost too ridiculous. Raven glanced at him sidelong as she readied her stance. The Headmaster had just finished explaining the rules. It was, Qrow, realized, much simpler than he thought it would be.

Professor Ozpin stood before them, running his gaze down the line of students. “Right. Is everyone ready?”

“No.” Someone called out. Ozpin shrugged.

“Good. Here we go.” And he pressed at the button on his scroll.

The first student was flung skyward. They didn’t make a sound as they soared into the air and soon their weapon was out to assist in their landing. Qrow leaned closer to ready his launching. Raven glanced at him.

“Remember the plan.” She said. Qrow, knowing the implication, nodded. Another student launched. “Oh, and don’t die.”

Qrow smirked as another student screeched into the void. “You too.”

Raven felt her heart thrum with anticipation. Qrow, at her side, held the same eagerness. So when the jolt came she almost didn’t know it. One moment she was with feet firmly planted and the next she was sky-born, the wind shifting through her hair. She saw the trees below and extended her legs. She drew her blade and let her aura course through her. Then, with a smirk, she spun the rotary on her hilt and slammed with a slicing of wind through the trees.

—

Qrow felt the launching like a sudden sucking of pressure from his stomach. He flung himself fully into the rising and laughed as the trees began to close in on him sooner than expected. He felt for it at his back and quickly drew his blade out. He pressed at it, shifting its form, and fired a shot at the tree line that recoiled to push him further upward. He continued this, skidding along the tops of the trees, and pressed his aura closer to shield him from branches breaking against his descent. Then he shifted his blade, drew it down to slice at the tree boughs in his way in a wicked spin, and landed with a tucked roll, spinning out of it and skidding a foot out in a half circle before him, his weapon unfurled to a full sword. He smiled.

Eye contact. That’s all he and Raven needed to make.

There was a commotion in the trees behind him and he heard the slam of something heavy breaking wood. He dashed back, trying to find the source, but soon there was a great tumult overhead and he was tossed back by the force of an impact before him. Qrow held his sword out to block the debris. He almost hesitated to peak out from behind the metal. It wasn’t until a strong voice called through the dust that he looked up, dread curdling in his stomach.

“Sorry, man, too much?”

The boy that emerged from the smoke was tall, broad, and blonde. Exactly the one who’d shut him up at the ceremony. This time Qrow felt his blood boil in much the same way his sister’s usually did.

“You!” They said it almost simultaneously.

The boy walked forward, not as antagonistic as Qrow, but somewhere along that line. “You were talking during the speech yesterday.”

“Oh no, arrest me now.” Qrow drawled. He tried to pretend he wasn’t pissed. The first person they made eye contact with was to be their partner. It was supposed to be Raven. It should have been so _easy._ He held a hand up placatingly. “Look, pal, you’re probably a great guy, but let’s just pretend we never met and go our separate ways. I’m sure there’s other people we’d like to pair with.”

Qrow moved to walk away but a hand latched onto his shoulder. “No.” The boy was staring at him, brows furrowed. “That isn’t how this works. We’re partners now, for better or worse.” Qrow nearly growled as he turned. The boy held a hand out. “I’m Taiyang. Taiyang Xiao-Long. But…Tai works.”

“Qrow.” He ground out. “Qrow Branwen.”

“Well, Qrow, I guess…”

That was when he heard it.

The familiar whirl of her portal opening, a sphere red as blood unspooling from the air. He slouched further as she emerged, slinging Harbinger over his shoulder. Raven came through with an exasperated sigh and let the portal zip closed at her back. “What kind of school _throws_ students from—” Her eyes found them. She stared at Qrow, then at Tai, who was gape-mouthed at her sudden appearance, and then back at Qrow.

Her brother gestured lazily to the boy behind him. “His name is Taiyang.”

“WHAT!” Raven drew closer, hands curled to fists at his side.

Tai pointed at her. “How did you do that?”

Raven stormed towards her brother, ignoring the question. “What happened? How did this even—”

There was a small shriek behind them. Raven, Qrow, and Tai all turned, weapons out, eyes alert. When a girl stumbled into the clearing Qrow and Tai had created in their landings, regaining her balance with a single step to straighten out and survey them, Qrow stowed his weapon and cocked his head to the side. “Oh.”

Raven shoved past him, anger flaring. “You?” She snarled.

Summer was startled but she waved nonetheless, undeterred by the force of the words. “Me.”

Raven drew her hands out into and X before her. “No, no, _no._ I will _not_ be paired with…”

Qrow’s hand was on her shoulder. “Rae. It’s the rules.” He looked at her, eyes conveying a warning. If she made an explosive episode out of this, they’d come out looking bad later. If they could manage to stay off that radar, it was better. He shook his head slightly to bring the point home and Raven drew in a breath. She thrust her hand out and Summer flinched slightly at the force of it.

“Raven.”

Summer studied her extended hand before gently taking it. “Summer.”

Raven shook it and then turned back to head into the forest. “Wonderful. Let’s go.”

Tai glanced with some confusion at Qrow. Summer, looking a bit abashed at the reaction, drew her hand in and let it fall almost limply at her side. “She’s…nice.” Tai offered as he came to Summer’s side.

“Oh yeah, real nice.” Qrow rolled his eyes.

Tai looked to him. “How did she…do that?”

Qrow smirked. “If I told you that, I’d have to kill you.” When neither of them did anything outside of blink dumbly at him Qrow shucked his half-smile in favor of a less pleased expression. “I’m kidding. I’m…” he sighed, “never mind.” He slunk forward and followed his sister. He cursed, not for the first time, his always rotten luck.

—

Raven was livid. No, more than livid, she was _incensed._ Their plan was foolproof. It was such a simple guarantee for her to portal to her brother, set up their partnership, and ensure their placement on a team. But now even that was uncertain. Because of the oaf and the pixie. She hated them both.

“Hey, Rae.” Qrow jogged to her side, his voice low. “Let’s…think about this.”

She exhaled. Anger was a strength but it could also be a weakness. She looked back at her brother and tried to quell the pool of ire in her. “We don’t know how they pick the teams, Qrow, what if…”

“What if we already did, and this is it?” She studied him. “Look, I’m just saying, we need to play this cool. I get why you’re angry, I am too. But maybe they’re not so bad.”

“They’re not us.”

“And we’d have to be in a team of four anyway. So…better we form a new partnership, right, since we already have each other.”

Raven was not swayed but she stowed her uncertainty. It wouldn’t benefit either of them here. And that was forgetting that they were still in the middle of an exercise. An exercise, no less, that was apparently thick with the potentiality of Grimm contact.

As if to solidify that fact, a roar ruptured through the forest. Raven and Qrow instantly spun, standing back to back, as the trees swayed with the winds of the echo. Tai and Summer quickly ran to join them. Metal slid from the bracers on Tai’s wrists, sweeping over his curled fists like draconic scales. Summer had not drawn her weapon. She drew her hood on and backed towards the group, glancing at their surroundings almost fearfully. Raven watched them both with a grimace.

“It’s far off.” Summer offered.

“It can get closer.” Tai added. “Does anyone know where we’re going? Toward or away from the…growl?”

Raven scanned the forest. It was difficult to see anything in the trees, but she’d trained her eyes well enough to spot movement in these kinds of shadows. Nothing caught her eye. They’d shoot straight then.

“I think it’s this way.” Summer’s hand drew out from beneath her cloak, pointing in the opposite direction Raven was poised to take off in. The older Branwen turned to the girl.

“You think?” She shot the words out.

Summer looked to her and something in her gaze dampened Raven’s anger, like soft rainfall on a small flame. But it did not quell it. “I do. Where there’s Grimm, there’s probably others. And where they are, we’re likely to find our way to the relics.”

Raven deferred to Qrow, who merely shrugged. “Good point.” He said.

Tai backed further against their tight circle. “So you want to go…towards the Grimm?”

Summer nodded. “There’s safety in numbers, right?” Raven snorted. “So the more students we pick up, the better chance we all have of making it there.”

Raven almost laughed as she turned to Summer. “This isn’t about others students—it’s our test. And since we’re partners, I say we avoid the Grimm and get to higher ground.We can scope out a directional focus there.” She nodded towards the forest. “Let the others handle them if they come.”

Summer frowned. “That’s selfish.”

“It’s not selfish, it’s—”

A tree snapped behind Raven and she spun back, sword out, as something emerged from the thick trees. More snapping branches. Each of the four students drew closer, backed against one another, to face the sudden gathering of beowolves that had emerged sniveling from the underbrush. Raven spun her rotary to ice. She’d done this enough times to do it alone and blind-folded. Her smile returned.

“Two-Nine, Qrow?”

“Five-Ten.” He answered, swinging his own blade out before him. Tai readied a stance, fists curled as the metal grated over his knuckles. Summer still hadn’t drawn her weapon yet and so Qrow looked at her with mild concerned. “You…uh, going to fight?”

But Summer didn’t answer. The beowolves howled in daunting echoes, bounding from the trees to snap at them. The closest leapt up, claws extended towards a waiting Raven. She let her blade loose as it descended, meeting its claws in mid-air and jumping to spin atop it, shoving her blade into its back. She watched the ice cackle along its fur, freezing it. It slammed into the ground but did not shatter. Tai leapt in at this opportunity, drawing back a fist to smash into its frozen jaw. The force of the hit reverberated through the beast, shredding it into slowly disintegrating dust that made a sound like shattering glass as they split. Tai rounded on another one that had come up on his rear, delivering a blow that aimed downward, smashing the next beast’s head into the ground with an impact that broken open the earth at his feet. Raven had charged two coming from in front of her. She spun her blade out, driving it into any openings exposed. She spun her rotary as the air took her up above their snapping snouts, releasing fire with her next swing and driving her blade rapidly into smoky flesh. Landing, her sword still engulfed in fire, she tore towards the other beast and spun with a cry before piercing the exposed underside of its jaw. It gave to ash under her glare.

The clearing grew quiet. Raven scanned for more Grimm but the trees seemed empty enough. She turned to see the others. Qrow had his sword in the back of a vanishing beast and he drew it out as the form crumbled. Tai stood before a massive patch of shattered earth, a show of force Raven was almost impressed by. He scanned the area in a similar fashion and straightened with surprise. His fists were cupped in the jaws of a dragon’s head, jeweled eyes reflecting red.

“Where’s Summer?”

Raven did not see the girl among them. She stiffened, alert with a sudden trill that blared familiar warning to her. She spun.

The ursa burst from the trees in the blink of an eye. Raven raised her sword defensively, Tai stepped forward and Qrow shouted at her before rushing in. The shot that tore through the air was a staccato that echoed through the trees. Raven watched the ursa blown back with the force of bright flame, a gap of red opening in the center of it’s bone-covered forehead. It fell at her feet, fading in a billowing of black.

Raven spun just as a white-coated figure leapt into the clearing. Her cloak spilled out behind her but gathered as she stood and drew the hood off. She smiled. “Got it.”

Raven almost gaped. She shook the expression off. “Where did you go?”

Summer held up a long red and white rifle. She ran a hand along its side before slamming the butt of it into the ground. She shrugged and scratched at her face with a forefinger. “I needed to be able to get into the trees.” She glanced down at her weapon quickly before it slid against itself, compacting into a shape that she could split. Soon the girl held two daggers she could easily holster at her hips. Raven hadn’t even noticed the small sheaths before.

“You’re a ranged fighter.” Qrow smiled, looking back at Tai. “This a is a good mix.”

Raven furrowed her brows further, ignoring when Summer smiled at her with a small wave. She had no need to thank the girl. She could have handled the ursa fine by herself. She kept her grip tight on her hilt. “Weapons out. We need to make sure there aren’t anymore.”

Tai and Qrow needed no telling but Summer simply rocked back on her heels. “We should go towards the others.” She thumbed over her shoulder. “I just…think it’ll be easier.”

Raven glanced at Qrow and was not at all surprised when he shrugged. “Fine. Lead the way.”

Summer grinned. And with a gait that displayed a faint amount of playfulness, she made her way into the woods as if the forest contained nothing but trees. The rest of them followed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm seriously debating on the relevancy of the uniform kilt Qrow story. I love it. It's beautiful. But should Qrow wear a kilt in this story and the answer is probably not. Or maybe it's of course he should. Maybe they should all wear kilts. Quick! costume change! Everyone must wear tINy MINISKIrts! This is Roy Mustang speaking!
> 
> Anyway, thanks for the read <3


	4. Then There Were Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is up my dudes! I'm trying to make this weekly so I can have time to work way in advance on it. Have enough material for a few more chapters and counting! This isn't going to be a book, but it's taken some turns towards length. I hope everyone can enjoy!

They found their way to the relics with far more ease than Raven anticipated. They’d had to dispatch only a handful of beowolf, and she had a sneaking suspicion that these were more or less planted in the forest specifically for this exercise. She had a hard time believing a place this close to Beacon wasn’t being culled of Grimm every few weeks. Maybe for this they simply let the creatures overstay their welcome.

“So…how does this work?”

Tai stared down at the gears set on the stole pillars. They weren’t the first team there, but they weren’t the last. Raven came to his side to examine the relics. Only twelve remained, in three sets of four matches. It wasn’t hard to see the implication. Unless it was a red herring. She thought on possibilities for a moment, hardly noticing when Qrow picked up a silver one and Summer grabbed its match. The girl moved to mimic toasting them and Qrow, at first reluctant, gave in with a sort of truncated laugh. Tai studied the third of the matching set.

“Raven,” Qrow called out, wriggling his piece, “I think it’s that simple.”

She turned to him but did not meet his eyes. What if it wasn’t?

The other team had taken their matching pieces and were excitedly conversing by a farther set of pillars. They weren’t anyone she had been keeping an eye on, and they seemed entirely content with their pairings. She glanced at Summer and tried to shake the thick truth that she’d be stuck with this girl for the next four years. Qrow seemed calm enough around Tai, even seeming to warm up quickly enough to Summer that the two of them shared a laugh. Only she was the odd one out.

“Raven.” Summer had drawn away from the conversation. “Are you okay?”

“Thinking.” Raven snapped. Realizing it was probably not the best tone to take, she exhaled. “This just doesn’t feel right.”

“I know what you mean.” Summer glanced out at the wind-shaken trees. “It’s like that feeling on the final question of a test—”

“Do you think it’s Grimm?”

“Well, considering what I came here to do,” She drew out her daggers and snapped them into their fuller form—a two-toned rifle red as blood that faded softly to white on its muzzle, “I’m hoping it’s a Grimm.”

When the roar came it was not unexpected. It ushered a flock of birds into the sky and they cried as they departed, alarmed.

Summer leapt back onto the stone that had shielded the the pillars and the relics and Raven drew out her own sword. She spun the rotary to fire and let the flame slide down the metal, engulfing it. Tai and Qrow took to either side of her. The other team held position and she glanced at the girl with blue hair who had pushed to the front of the four. She nodded once and the girl caught her meaning with a smile.

What emerged from the forest was more than a pack of beowolves. It could stand to be a _stampede_ of them. Raven gripped tighter at her hilt as they screamed onto the field, all black and white and red gnashing against the green. She heard the stirring of Qrow’s weapon as it ticked further open, and he shifted his grip on the hilt to face the blade forward.

“We’re going to fire at once.” The call came from above. Raven resisted the urge to turn and look. It was Summer. Spitting out directions. She grimaced. “Everyone hold steady until they close in.” They all did. Raven heard the familiar clatter of weapons readying. They all stood, watching the wave of Grimm tear onwards with claws tearing at the dirt. “And pull!”

The shots fired. Summer’s weapons spit out a vast network of shells that seemed to firework in the air above the creatures. Dust bore down on them like rain. Raven was almost awed at the show as shards tore through the beasts, slowing them. Qrow’s own weapon opened fire and she heard another few guns bursting out rounds. The first wave fell but more spilled past the black dust, screeching as they closed in on the students. Raven bent closer.

“Hold.” Summer’s voice came. Raven held. Reluctantly. The first beowolf was almost upon them. She could see the red of its eyes baring down on them. It rose up on hind legs, jaw open.

“Now!” Summer shouted. Raven didn’t need the command.

She slammed her blade into the Grimm’s stomach, following through with a series of thrusts before a decisive run through the center. She heard the clatter as others engaged as well. Now it was everyone for themselves. A speciality of hers. She tangled with another Grimm, dodging a scrape against of sharp claws against metal, and spun her rotary to electricity. The dust burst to coat her sword in a sharp shock of energy. She sent this through the beast and saw a blur of green clothes and blue hair descend on it with fists driving its back into the ground. It faded and the girl who’d attacked gave a wink at Raven before leaping back into the battle. Raven shook the sight off.

She spun to catch her brother’s eye. Qrow stood with Harbinger slung over his shoulder. He almost walked towards the two beowolf coming down at him, cocky smile and all. She spun from him as he unfurled his blade, letting it extend to an even greater length. He swung it down on one’s head with such force that it lifted his feet from the ground. He used that momentum to propel himself in the air, flipping and ripping Harbinger out to fire at the snapping jaws below him. He spun, switching his weapon as he landed to pierce them both with a single thrust. Before he could move there was a swift cry and another beowolf bowled into the two before him, sending them crashing into a pile of Grimm. He smirked and fired on them all as they struggled. One broke free to tear towards him and he snapped his blade to swipe it into two. When the beast was dissolving around Harbinger a small figure leapt down to land on top of the metal. Summer stood, drawing out her rifle. She curled her hands around it, snapping it in two as she flipped from Qrow’s blade. Two daggers, one red and one white, were gripped tight in her hands. She diced at a beowolf with a near lightening quick flexibility, dodging and snapping back with expertise.

Qrow heard his name and spun to see Tai at his back. The boy leapt up, a draconic fist drawn back to hold power, and smashed it into the beowolf that had been slowly closing on on the younger Branwen. Sparks ran through it and Qrow took the opportunity to slice down the creature’s neck. He whistled as the beast faded and Tai turned to him, curling his fingers in. The eye of his carved bracers flickered yellow.

“Keep a better eye out.” He nodded at Qrow.

Qrow smirked with Harbinger over his shoulder. “That’s what I have you for, partner.”

Tai smiled back and gave a nod to the side. Together, they tore into a thicket of more Grimm.

—

“Congratulations, Team CRLN.” Headmaster Ozpin stood on the stage with the four addressed students. The girl in blue and green that Raven had noted during the fight grinned at her teammates and the crowd. Raven passed a cursory inspection of all of them, arms folded before her chest. She stood with Qrow and the other two members of their fledging team near the foot of the stage, awaiting their introduction. Two more team were called up before them, all exchanging quick glances with excitement or worry. The fox Faunus Vermillion led her own team, aptly named VMLN, and Ember was a part of Team PERL.

When Ozpin called them she straightened her back and walked towards the stage, followed closely by Qrow and Tai and Summer. When they were all gathered in a row under the blaring lights, Ozpin fixed them with a sharp and knowing gaze. Raven, as she always did, met it.

“And now I present Team STRQ—composed of Taiyang Xiao-Long, Summer Rose, Raven Branwen, and Qrow Branwen. To be lead by Summer Rose.” Cheers erupted around the hall and Summer, to Raven’s surprise, looked alarmingly shocked at the announcement. She seemed to shake the feeling easily enough. Raven hid her own disappointment down deep, buried in an often untouched place.

Summer didn’t feel like a leader.

She felt like a child, eager to jump into situations and not eager to flee them. A stupidity, really. The decision, especially by a man like Ozpin, felt organically strange. Like an ominous warning of sorts. If they were to be heroes, the best representation of that should be their leader. If Summer was what Ozpin imagined heroes as, she was slowly losing faith in this institution’s ability to protect anything.

Raven glanced around at her teammates, grateful Qrow had been right about the simplicity of the selection. At least they had that. They exited the stage amid a rustle of polite applause. The crowd welcomed them back with congratulations. Before she knew it, they were all exiting the hall and on their way to their selected dorms in the residence wings. The rush of students was thick. They ran and laughed and skipped and strolled down the halls, in pairs and quartets. She lingered by the back and Qrow was at her side, watching it all with a small smile.

Maybe simply being kids _was_ the key to this. Qrow had often admonished Raven for not knowing how to have fun, but she’s had plenty of fun with those similar in age to them at the tribe. They’d laughed and stolen and drank like the rest of them. She imagined Qrow hardly harbored the same affections, but that didn’t dispel her memories of them.

Tai and Summer turned back to them and Raven tried to find that buried glimmer of rebellion and joy. It didn’t matter, the details of this mission. She was a born leader and no one could take that from her. The small injustice wouldn’t derail her. She’d follow Summer when it suited her, to keep the peace, and then Qrow and her would stick loyal to themselves when that leadership ultimately failed.

She smirked at the thought.

Survive. It’s what she’d do. Under no one’s truth but her own.

* * *

_Before Beacon_

_The fire that burned the village rose higher. Raven stood on a thick tree bough, hand pressed firm against the hard bark. Qrow was at her side, shuttered up in silence. Cries echoed down to them, wafting like smoke from the burning village. Her fingers curled in against the bark and she slammed her fist against it. “We should be down there.”_

_Qrow said nothing from where he was crouched._

_Raven watched the tree below them for any sign of fleeing villagers. They’d been told to stem the tide, let them go after shaking them down for all the goods they’d fled with. Raven unsheathed Final Parting. She looked down at her brother._

_“Are you ready?”_

_Qrow’s eyes were fixed on the chaos they could see over the trees. Flames rose in pillars of thick smoke and snaps of blazing orange. “This doesn’t feel right.”_

_“What does that mean?”_

_“Something’s off.” He stood, his eyes fixed on the horizon of the coming dawn that lent the fire a divine tint. A roar bloomed from the northwest corner of the forest ahead of them, and a chorus of screams sounded off. Qrow immediately leapt up._

_“Qrow!” Raven held a hand out as he vanished into the thick vegetation below. She grit her teeth and shook her head, following him down into the underbrush._

_His shadow darted between the trees, headed to the source of the panic beyond the village. Grimm. The subtly of the attack was supposed to draw them out and they were supposed to let them do their usual work, ransacking as the Grimm poured into the town. Raven dashed after her brother, shouting to get his attention every few seconds. He didn’t bother turning._

_The crash of thick trees heralded the coming Grimm._

_She heard the gunfire before she saw him._

_“Qrow!”_

_He leapt up, drawing Harbinger against the beast. Below him, the villagers reared in fear as he tore into black hide. Raven waited, out of site, as he fought the Ursa. When it collapsed into black dust, drifting with the wind, one of the villagers broke from the group to come to him._

_“Thank you.”_

_Qrow turned back to the man, almost awed, and Raven grimaced from where she stood. The shadows of the forest would only hide her for a little more, until the sun took its place and chased the dark away. She grimaced as Qrow spoke with them. She held her hand as he let them go without so much as a threat. Some of them carried bags likely laden with goods. She watched them flow into the thick trees, leaving Qrow alone amongst the trees. She stormed towards him._

_“What the hell was that?”_

_He turned to her, brows furrowed, standing tall. “Our job.”_

_“Our job is not to protect them! It’s to take what we can from them.”_

_He laughed. “We have to prepare for Beacon, right?”_

_“We…” She looked away, scowling. “They’re spoiled brats living in luxury, Qrow. That’s all these people are. More money then we’ll ever possess! Selfish! Entitled! And you want to let them go out of_ mercy _? Because you think that’s what we’re supposed to do?”_

_Qrow looked down. “I just though we might act the part.”_

_“Of a huntsmen? Rich, Qrow.”_

_“I’m just tired.” He glanced out at the fire and the blossoming dawn. “Sorry.”_

_Raven said nothing. She looked at her brother and then followed his gaze. They were inches apart but she felt something cracking between them. Things has caused chasms in the past, so she ignored it. They were all tired, staking out all night. And he was right to think like a huntsman. It's what they would be doing soon. She stashed the fear away. Nothing could tear them apart. This she knew, and this she lived by._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone picking up what this new season is putting down? Wild.


	5. A Study In Cowardice

“Are you in position?”

“Ready down here.”

“All right. It should be close enough. We need to take it down as quickly as possible. And without ruining too much of the forest.”

“Qrow.” Two voices. Tai and Raven.

“What?”

“ _Without_ ruining the forest.”

“When do I ever ruin things?”

The two young women were perched on a branch above Qrow and Tai. All of them had their weapons out and ready. Tai spat to the side and glanced at Qrow. “Only _all the time._ ” He stepped back and forth in his eagerness, his jewel-eyed bracers seeming to grin in agreement. Qrow held Harbinger steady and smiled.

The roar sliced through the wind and poured hot air towards them. Summer’s voice came almost too quietly from above. “I think it’s seen us.” A great armored claw swiped down towards them from the trees. “Scatter!” And so they did.

—

Raven landed with the flutter of red leaves. Forever Fall was an appropriate name for the forest. A bit too romantic for her tastes, but it got the point across. Trees snapped in the distance as the Death Stalker tore through them. There were two of them roaming the forest and if was their responsibility to take them out. Along with gathering a bushel of some apples which Raven found an oddly off-putting way to end a mission involving Grimm. Kill these creatures, pick some apples.

She shook her head at the thought.

She heard a gun fire at the Grimm and it cried out as it engaged, scaring the birds from their trees in a small section not far from where Raven was perched. She leapt forward, drawing out Final Parting, and burst into the underbrush at a swift roll. The Death Stalker stood before her brother as he fired on it, the shots bouncing off its thick hide. He leapt back as it snaked out a pincer.

“That’s not going to do much.” Raven noted.

“I know.” Qrow smirked. “It’s not supposed to.”

There was a sharp shout from above and Raven glanced up to see a golden shrouded figure tearing from the canopy above. It dove down, right fist out to pound the Death Stalker into the ground. It slammed down at the impact, claws out and a great cry leaving it. Tai leapt back at the force of the impact, spinning in the air and dragging his hand along the ground to slow himself as he skid to a stop besides Qrow. He quickly regained balance, bouncing back on his heels. Qrow drove forward with Harbinger, spinning in a sharp arc to split the tail from the creature. It fell off with snaking black smoke.

Raven spun her rotary but Tai held a hand out. “No.” He said. “Find Summer. She should be here somewhere.”

Raven grimaced. “I can help.”

“Qrow and I have this, Raven!” Tai ducked as a claw swiped over his head, leaping back as Qrow fell in to block the next blow with Harbinger.

“Listen to him, Rae. We had a plan!”

Raven’s fists clenched. “It’s a ridiculous plan!”

“Go find Summer!”

Raven ground her teeth but leapt as another claw came down on the ground she’d been standing on. She fell into the trees again and rushed through the red, Final Parting slicing through branches that got in her way. She rose higher, winding her hand along the rough bark to break through the top canopy. Tai and Qrow’s fight was right there. She should be fighting with them.

A roar broke out behind her and she spun. There was a sharp snap of gunfire, a single shot, echoing from the same place. She fell down through the trees, landing on the forest floor with a burst of leaves. She sprinted through them, dodging trees and roots to reach the clearing Summer stood in alone, facing down the second Death Stalker. She skid to a stop at the girl’s side. Summer with firing off her rifle but the closer the Grimm scuttled the more her bullets skittered off its shell.

Raven spun her rotary. She shot forward, bearing her sword of flame. She brought it up, smashing it down against the beast’s tail as she’d seen Qrow do. But it bounced back. She clicked her tongue as she felt the reverberation. It’s tail came for her and she had Final Parting out to block the blow. It slammed her back into the ground.

She felt the earth dig into her shoulder but she spun out of the attack, staking her sword into the ground to steady her. Summer rushed to her side. “Are you all right?”

Raven shook her off and stood. She brushed at her bruised shoulder. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about me!” She nearly shouted the last words as a claw smashed the ground before them. Summer spun, her white cloak billowing as she dashed up the creature’s appendage. She split her rifle in two, spinning in a circle of white and red as she thrust the dagger into the creature’s eye. It cried and bucked, its tail coming to snap down on the small girl. Raven was there faster than she had planned. She drew a line of electricity down Final Parting and stabbed it into the creature’s tail end. Sparks surged through it and she disconnected and fell into a back flip to land before the Grimm. Summer slid to her side.

“We’ve got this.” The girl said.

Raven almost smiled. They tore forward as one, weapons at the ready, and cut off the pincers where they met the hard carapace. Raven drew up, readying her rotary to spin her final burst of fire dust. She dove down. The shell cracked. Summer was there a second later. She ran around the Grimm, slicing at any openings she saw. Raven drew her blade up again, readying her final blow.

A slicing came through the woods, snapping bark as Raven leapt to avoid it. The blow severed the Grimm in two. It faded as Raven landed, frowning. Summer wiped at her brow.

Qrow stood at the forest line, Tai at his side. Harbinger was in the ground before him. He pulled it out, swinging it over his shoulder.

“Not quick enough.”

“Unbelievable!” Summer shouted. “This was a _team_ exercise.”

“I thought we were a team?” He drawled.

Summer’s shoulders slumped forward. “A _partner_ exercise then.”

“You weren’t very specific. Besides, Tai and I can’t help how awesome we are. Can we, Tai?”

Tai, adjusting his bracers, shook his head. “Sadly, we cannot.”

Raven crossed her arms. “And what about not destroying the entire forest?”

Qrow and Tai turned to look behind them. There was a large path composed of fallen trees from where Qrow had brought his blade down. The boys eyes darted between the both of them and Raven a few times. Then they both stood straight, pointing accusatory fingers at one another.

—

The dining hall was bright where they sat. Light filtered in from the tall windows, casting shadows of the long tables across the floor. Team STRQ sat at the end of one such table. Raven was in the end seat on the bench besides Qrow. He and Tai were tangled in a talk with the members of Team CRLN, who had taken up with joining them all to eat. Raven had extricated herself from the conversation earlier, letting her eyes wander through the room and out the windows seeping light. Qrow jumped forward at one point, jostling her with laughter that spilled against the others. Soon they were all joining in. Except for her.

The table was slammed with something and Raven looked to see that the blue-haired girl who lead CRLN, whose name was Sea, moved to clasp at Tai’s hand.

“You think you can win?” She smirked.

Tai returned the attitude. “I know I can win.”

After a short countdown, Qrow’s hand landed on the table to signal the start. Raven watched them both tense, each trying to push the other down, leaning in with teeth grit in determination. She rolled her eyes. Summer, across from her, was reading a thick, hardback book. She glanced up at Raven.

“Everything okay?”

“Fine.” Raven nodded at the book. “Is that for class?”

“Oh, this?” Summer set the book down, reddening. “It’s actually for fun.”

“For fun?” Raven drawled.

“Yeah.” Summer put a metal book mark in—shaped, Raven noticed, like a rose—and shut it. “I think I needed a break from studying.” The table shuddered from the force of a slam and it shook their glasses. Summer immediately grabbed at hers. Cheers roared. Tai stood from the table, banging against it, and Qrow was clapping him on the back. Sea had her face against the polished wood, fist pounding at in in defeat. She shot her head up.

“I demand a re-do!”

Tai shrugged. “You lost fair and square. Admit it, I’m the strongest one in here.”

Sea thumbed over her shoulder. “Tell that to Ember.” All of the students, save Raven and Summer, turned to look at the big young man at their backs.

Tai nodded. “Point taken. But he’s too nice to challenge anyone to anything so you can’t even prove it.”

Sea shot up, palms flat on the table. “Give me a week.”

Tai leaned forward, sneering. “What, to lose again?”

“To wipe that smile off your face! And yours too, skirt boy!” She directed the latter jab at Qrow, who took no offense. He leaned forward.

“At least I pull it off better than you.”

Gasps. Qrow straightened, arms crossed, and held a hand out for Tai to slap. They both wore a similar kid of smugness. Sea bristled. “I’ll make you eat those words.”

“Good, they’re _delicious.”_ Qrow smirked.

Sea glanced at her team, most of whom were now pretending they were rather preoccupied with eating. “All right, everyone. Let’s go. I’ve got two idiots to bury in their shame.” When Team CRLN departed Tai and Qrow resumed their seats.

“Told you she’d lose.” Qrow poked at his meal.

“I knew it. But…” Tai held up a shaking arm. “She almost didn’t.” He sighed. “That was a bit mean to say, although you did pull a skirt off _surprisingly_ well.”

“Hey, what can I say? Skirts aren't for everyone.”

Raven clenched her fists tight before her. “Waste of time.” She stood, swinging out her legs to rise from the table. Qrow, Tai and Summer all watched her go.

“Is she…?” Tai asked. Summer glanced at Qrow and Tai followed suit. When he realized they were both staring at him, he held his hands up defensively. “Why are you looking at me?”

“She’s _your_ sister.” Tai said. “Shouldn’t you…I don’t know, see what’s wrong?”

Qrow shut his eyes, sitting straighter as he brought the fork to his mouth. “Doesn’t mean she’s my responsibility.”

Tai and Summer exchanged a look and turned back to him. Qrow opened an eye to see them. “Fine.” He growled, setting his utensil down with a clang to stand. “Fine, don’t look at me like that.” When he left Tai and Summer looked at each other again, somewhat subdued in their confusion, before they resumed their respective meals in a small quiet.

—

“Raven.” Qrow didn’t feel like chasing his sister down. Usually he let her brood on her own. He was having _fun._ It was a rarity enough as it was. “Hey.” He reached her and bent to clutch at his knees and catch his breath. “What was that for?”

“What?” She kept walking along the school grounds and he had to keep a brisk pace to walk with her.

“Storming out like that? We were just having some fun.”

“Fun isn’t…” She sighed. “Never mind. I’m fine, Qrow, just go back. You blend in way better than I do here.” She stalked off and left Qrow standing behind her, scowling. He kicked at a mound of tall grass.

“Hey.” He called out. “That’s not true. Summer and Tai like you—they do.”

She turned to him, expression flat with disbelief. “Do they?”

“They do. Rae, really, we’re doing fine here. It’s going well, I think.”

Raven sighed. “I just miss it, sometimes.” She glanced up at the sky. “Home.”

Qrow said nothing for a moment. He kept his eyes on the ground instead. “Well let’s make the best of it while we’re here, okay?” He put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s what we’ve always done. I don’t think we can bail just yet.”

Raven looked back at her brother. “I wasn’t thinking of bailing.”

“Oh, you weren’t?”

She pushed him aside. “I resent that you think that.”

“I didn’t mean it—”

“Let’s just go.”

They made their way back to the dining hall with just a little too much space in between them.

* * *

_Before Beacon_

_Raven fell back against the staked wooden fence. She held the daggers out to prepare for the next attack, her eyes darting around her assailants. One of them men strode casually before the others, flipping a blade as he spoke. “You’re still too stiff.” He said. “If you can’t loosen up, it’s only going to cause more problems.” He threw the blade at the last word. Raven dodged it, ducking as the women and men came at her. She spun, breaking the loosened punch of one by snapping the hilt of a blade down on their extended arm. The others snaked around, trying to land hits as he weaved in and out of their attacks and gave her own. She backpedaled, tossing a blade out to the man who had spoken to her._

_He deflected it with his own. “You’re almost as cocky as Qrow.”_

_Raven, having downed most of her opponents, stood her ground. Her single remaining blade was out. Her breathing was heavy with exertion. “I’m not cocky.”_

_He flipped his blade. “Then prove it.” He charged. Raven darted back, staving off his speed with her own blade. She felt the sharp tang of blood as the man’s fist connected with the underside of her jaw. It sent her sprawling._

_She spat to the side, wiping at her mouth as the man came to stand as a shadow over her. The bright sun at his back made him a dark silhouette. “Forfeit?”_

_“Never.”_

_He stabbed at her again but she was ready. The portal opened at her back and she fell into with a smirk, swallowed by black and red. She caught the look on his face, utter shock, before it faded to nothing._

_Qrow was sitting on a tree branch in the thick oak that sat outside their small hut, his legs rocking back and forth. He was chucking old bread to a gathering of pigeons and black birds. She slipped from the tree beneath him and he glanced down between his legs to see her._

_“Raven?” She bent onto her knees with heaves of air. Qrow leapt down to come to her side, a hand out to touch her shoulder. He seemed to think better of it and drew it back. “Hey, I thought you were—”_

_“I was.” She gathered herself and wiped at her forehead. “But I…think I won.” She smiled at him._

_“Raven!”_

_They both spun at the sound. It had risen from inside the main camp. Qrow’s expression became one of concern. He turned to look down at his sister. “Did you—”_

_“Don’t.” She warned darkly, holding a hand out to stop him. “I can deal with it.” She spat once the side. It was tinged only slightly red. “He’s just mad I won.”_

_—_

_“What did I say about using your semblance?”_

_Raven did not shrink away from his words. Although she knew that he wanted her to. Her greeting had been a firm hit to side of her jaw. The punch he wanted to finish with during the fight. It throbbed something awful but she did not let him know how much it pained her._

_Quiver was not a patient man. He was not tolerating of failure, of which he considered this. She was trying to prove to him that it was a success._

_“I did exactly what you wanted me to. I won.”_

_“By cheating.” He snarled._

_Raven held his accusatory gaze. “By doing what I could. This is training for the real thing, right? Well, this is what I’m do out there.” She gestured outside of the small tent. The flap fluttered gently in the breeze, and the sun poked in with it. “My semblance is part of me. It isn’t cheating.”_

_Quiver studied her. “And what will happen when you can’t use it one day? What will happen if you can’t portal to your brother?” Raven almost laughed. Quiver did not find it as funny. “Depending on a semblance like that is cowardice.”_

_“Since when do you care about cowardice?” Raven began, her red eyes nearly burning. “If I can live to fight again, that’s what I’ll do.”_

_“You never stand your ground.” Quiver said. “When battles get too tough, you’ve always abandoned them.”_

_“Because there was no point!”_

_“That doesn’t sound reassuring when we’re depending on you to be there during raids!” He shouted. Raven glanced away. “If you’re not looking out for us, than how can you expect us to look out for you?_

_“I always look out for the tribe.”_

_“Yes, when it’s easy.”_

_Raven stood. “You’ve been driving me for months, Quiver, and each time I’ve come out the other side better. I don’t spar. I fight, in however way I see fit. I can protect the tribe just fine. If I was really a coward, I wouldn’t even be fighting.”_

_Quiver’s nostrils flared. He rested a hand on his forehead. “You’re dismissed.”_

_Raven turned from him, glad to be out of the lecture. She was fifteen and in need of no one’s advising. She was growing steadily more sick of the constant critiquing of her fighting, especially when she could outclass most of the women and men currently in the tribe. She stalked off, feeling the bruises from the match beginning to blossom beneath her gear._

_“Raven.”_

_She turned at the sound of her name. Quiver stood against the post of his tent’s entrance, parting the curtain with a raised hand. “I can’t teach you if you can’t learn.”_

_Raven glared. She began her walk backwards from him, gesturing before she turned her back. “I’ve already learned enough.”_

_That, she knew, was the truth he never let her believe._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can't leave a bench angrily. Like. I thought about how Raven would get up from the dining hall bench with rage and you just can't it's always going to be hilarious. You like yell and skoot out and struggle to not hit your legs on the underside of the table its great very angry.
> 
> Qrow wore it better


	6. All Their Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sure, sure, this works. Warning for a bit of mentioning of abuse but nothing explicitly shown. Do you like team bonding? I bet you do00o.

Night at Beacon Academy was almost peaceful. Raven found the best places to spend the evenings were along the various balconies that jutted out over the courtyard. Most of the time there were students scattered about them, talking, stargazing, studying—but sometimes they were empty. Raven spent her first few weeks at Beacon visiting a small, rounded balcony that hung down a wing far from the others. Students only passed occasionally and most hardly bothered her. Tonight was no exception.

Raven, for the most part, was alone.

Alone and free to think.

She picked at her nails as she gazed at the shattered moon. So bright. It seemed almost closer here, not lost in the canopy of their old forest home. She missed that small hut sometimes. Tucked away under trees that changed color with the seasons, away from the boisterousness of the main camp. Some of the members of the tribe had gossiped that it was a perfectly executed exile. In order to keep Qrow’s misfortune from touching them, they’d virtually quarantined him and, by expectation, Raven.

But she always saw the fire of the main camp and it had seemed so warm. Her fellow tribe members were all gathered around it talking and drinking and laughing. But she was always outside looking in.

“Raven.”

She spun with more ferocity than intended, fists curled. The girl behind held up placating hands.

“It’s only me.”

“Summer?” Raven straightened. “How did you—?”

Summer scratched at her cheek. “I didn’t. It gets too crowded in the study sections sometimes, so…” She offered a smile that Raven did not return. She turned her back on the girl.

“I’m just taking some time to myself.” She bristled when she heard Summer’s steps come to join at her side. The girl leaned over the railing with a thoughtful expression.

“That’s convenient. Me too.”

Raven glared at her. “I meant _alone._ ”

“I know.” Summer said. She grew solemn, her light smile fading. “I know you don’t like me very much—” She paused and when Raven said nothing she continued. “But…we’re partners now. I know I’m not a very good fighter, not like you. So I thought, maybe, if it will help our team, you could teach me a bit.”

Raven raised an eyebrow. “Teach you?”

“Yeah.” Summer straightened and the wind took her short hair and whipped it around her chin. “I want to be more than your partner, I want you to be able to rely on me. Qrow and Tai—they already seem to be good friends.” Raven, to some consternation, had noticed that. “I’m not asking to be friends, but…”

“Aren’t the teachers…teaching enough?”

Summer let out a breath of laughter. “Sure, but you’re still some of the best fighters of our year…if not, _the_ best. It’d be ridiculous not to ask you for _some_ guidance. I would ask Qrow but…I don’t think he could teach his way out of a paper bag.”

Raven snorted. “Yeah, well, I’ve always been the better fighter anyway.”

Summer grinned. “So you’ll help?”

Raven took a moment to study this girl. She was an easy smile, a simple person. Too simple. Too trusting. Maybe Qrow had been right in that sort of thinking—placing their game in the hands of those who wouldn’t think to sniff it out. Who’d want to befriend them, honestly and truly.

“I’ll…do what I can.” Raven folded her arms before her chest. “But I can’t promise I’ll be good at it.”

Summer beamed. “That’s all right!”

The thought of training created a strange giddiness in Raven. She didn’t find the prospect of Summer’s leadership very assuring, but if she could teach the girl a thing or two about real combat, then maybe she could learn to like her better.

Four years, she reminded herself. The long game.

“Thank you!” Summer reached out to her, reconsidered, and rocked back on her heels. “I’ll be a quick teach.”

Raven imagined so. She was flighty, sure, but the girl had some talent with her weaponry. Raven felt her curiosity grow. “What’s their name? Your daggers?”

“Oh.” Summer laughed bashfully. “Bloom and Petal. I know it’s kind of…dumb. What about yours?”

Raven bit back her hesitation. Final Parting had been a rather…dramatic name when she’d first received the weapon. Qrow had tried very hard to shelter laughter over it but Raven had thought it too edgy to pass up. She swallowed down some pride. “Final Parting.”

Summer’s grew wide. “I like that!”

Raven fed her a look of disbelief. “Do you?”

“I do! It’s a…promise, to the Grimm.”

Raven quirked her lips up in a small smile. “That was the point.” The expression faded slowly. She looked down at her hands. They were shaking, slightly, and not from an anger that usually heralded the tremors. Not from fear. From a mixture of the two that was neither. She curled her fingers in. The long game, she repeated to herself.

“I don’t mean to…impose, I guess.” Summer was not looking at her when she spoke. She’d resumed her position against the railing, looking up at the moon. “The truth is when I first saw you and Qrow I thought: Wow! They’re so self-assured and confident. They’ve probably been through so much. Much more than I have.” She exhaled. “And I kind of like that you’re not all that, well, _nice_.”

Raven, startled to offense, leaned back. “What’s that supposed to—”

“Oh!” Summer held her hands up defensively. “No, I don’t mean it like that.” She exhaled. “People here think I’m too nice. My parents always told me I apologized too much or never stood up for myself enough.” She grew quieter. “I’ve always had a hard time defending myself or sticking up for people I love because I’m afraid that if I say something I’ll upset someone. It’s a fear that’s kept me from doing so much good. But with you…there’s an honesty there. A real one. I think that’s admirable because I know you’ll act with what you believe in, not with what you think will make everyone happy.”

Raven was taken aback. People in the tribe had called her blunt, angry, and had often threatened her for her tongue. She’d learned to hold it. But she’d never been called _honest._ That was not something that was valued for her people. Honesty was a platitude. Nice got you killed. Mercy could be a final act. So she’d learned to live as dishonestly as possible—without healing the scars the world had carved on her. Each one she bore, knowing full well what had caused them. Anger, distrust, ruin. The world was not a kind place everywhere, and she would never let herself forget that. But it was not often people applauded her for that particular kind of straight-forwardness.

“That’s…not really what I am.” She looked down. “Honest, I mean.”

Summer bent to try and meet her eyes, a smile on her face and hands clasped behind her back. “Maybe not. But I still think you’re someone I can admire.” She grinned wider. It was bright, it was true, and it was something Raven had rarely seen before. Glimpses of it had come from her brother, but there was a purity to this girl. A kindness. An unshakable faith. Raven almost couldn’t bring herself to consider it childish. There was always a light to the shadows cast.

Summer held a hand out. “Partners?”

Raven stared at it for a moment. She took it. “Partners.”

So they stood together on the balcony and when small talk fell away they simply remained. And for the first time, Raven didn’t mind the company.

—

“Can anyone tell me the key difference between Atlesian trained huntsmen and our own?” Professor Eurick—a tall, studious man—stood before all of them, pacing as he looked at the gathered students. A hand went up. “Yes, Miss Virissal?”

“We have more fun?”

Professor Eurick shook his head. “Nice try. Mr. Branwen why don’t you give this a shot, and _do_ put your feet down.”

Qrow was seated in the back row beside Tai, a pinky finger in his ear to scratch at it with a distracted air. He took his feet off the desk and leaned forward. “Sorry, I missed the question.”

“I _asked_ for the key difference between huntsmen and huntresses trained at Atlas and those trained here at Beacon.”

“Well, we’re less pompous about it.”

Chuckles. Raven slumped further into her seat, a hand on her temple. She sat some rows below Qrow. Summer, at her side, was looking similarly unimpressed. Professor Eurick’s expression flattened and he raised a single finger.

“Wrong, both of you, and _presumptuous._ The key difference between an Atlesian huntress and a Beacon-trained huntsmen is _nothing._ ” He began to pace again with slow steps. “Both are loyal to their occupation. And when you leave this Academy, you will be working alongside fellow graduates from the other Academies without ties to any particular nation. The differences in teaching styles are somewhat…detectable…but in the end all of you will have to let those preconceptions go if you want to succeed as a huntress or huntsmen.” His dark eyes scanned the crowd again. “Branwen, Virissal. I’d like you to stay behind a bit after class so we can _iron out_ these feelings. I can assure you Atlas is no more _pompous_ than you are.”

Qrow groaned quietly and Tai pat him on the back with condolence. Raven and Summer both hung their heads.

“Now…” Professor Eurick stepped back towards his desk to grab his mug. “Let’s move onto something a bit more fun: differentiating Grimm physiology.” He smiled as he said this and his hand brushed the mug, knocking it over with a small crash that several students gasped over. Professor Eurick’s expression grew grimmer.

“That’s the second time that’s happened.” One of the students whispered near Raven.

“Think he’s cursed?”

“No—it happened to Towers too. Remember when his chalks all fell and broke everywhere? Must have taken them a while to clean it all up.”

“Yeah I remember that. Maybe the school’s cursed. Remember that one time—?”

Raven didn’t dare sneak a glance up at the rows above her. But she could imagine Qrow’s expression as the words slid through the gathered students.

Professor Eurick sighed. “Just my luck.”

—

Tai hovered over his partner. Qrow had been seated on his bed for the past hour, invested in a book on Grimm. He was ensconced in a pair of headphones and when Tai pulled them up he startled his friend. “Why are you reading?”

Qrow, annoyed, snatched the headphones back. “Extra work from Eurick. Leave it.” He shoved the headphones on with more force than Tai imagined they needed. The blonde hovered over his partner’s shoulder, reading at his side.

“I thought he asked you about the kingdoms’ differences?” He tapped at the book. Qrow jerked it away from him, growing angry. “That’s not a history book.”

“I said _leave it_ , Xiao-Long.”

Tai pressed a hand to his heart. “The formality hurts.” He snapped the book up, which elicited a small “hey” from Qrow. “Why are you acting like this?”

Qrow glared at him. “I’m trying to do my _work._ ”

Tai flipped through the book, one hand rubbing at his chin. “Interesting. But not.” He chucked the book over his shoulder. It landed beside the room’s desk, where Summer was seated, and the young women looked up in frustration.

“Please stop throwing school work.”

Tai shrugged. Summer picked up the book and glanced up at Qrow, her expression softening. “Is…everything all right?”

“ _Fine._ ” Qrow tossed his legs over the side of his bed and moved to leave the room, hands in his pockets. Raven watched him from where she sat on her bed, polishing Final Parting. The door shut at Qrow’s departure. Tai looked to Summer. They both looked to Raven.

“That’s not going to work.” She did not meet their eyes, her focus solely on her blade.

“Do you know…if something happened?” Summer chanced.

Raven’s brow furrowed. She stopped polishing for a moment and held the cloth against the metal. She could chase down her brother but she could give nothing but more of the same assurances. Always the same. She shut her eyes. “He’s just tired, probably.”

“Tired.” Tai studied her. “Right.” He tapped at the back of Summer’s chair. “I’ll be back in ten minutes with Qrow.”

Raven sneered. “What are you going to do, strong-arm him into coming back here?”

That’s exactly what Tai did.

—

Qrow had hardly ever been _dragged_ anywhere. When Tai found him he knew he didn’t stand much of a chance against the brawnier boy, so he’d tried to placate him and ultimately failed. Tai had wrestled him into a hold and was now fully pulling him by the back of his shirt. Qrow let his feet drag dramatically on the ground as he tapped at his scroll, hunched over.

“Going to make me do all the hard work?” Tai asked over his shoulder.

Qrow gave no answer.

“Right. Of course. Just like Raven. Brood until the problem disappears. People are staring, you know.”

“Good.” Qrow glanced out at one student who had stopped her procession down the hall to stare at them both with alarm. Qrow gestured to her, his voice deadpan. “Help, I’m being kidnapped.”

Tai snorted. “You have to be a kid to be kidnapped.”

“Fine. I’m being _napped.”_

The girl blinked confusedly at them both but did nothing. Qrow exhaled and turned back to this scroll and said nothing more until Tai stopped in front of their dorm room. He dropped his hold on Qrow’s shirt and the younger Branwen simply fell with the motion, back flat against the hall’s floor, scroll held before his face. Tai leaned over him.

“So now you’re going to just lie there?” Qrow said nothing and so Tai nudged him over with his foot in order to reach the door, grumbling as he did so. “You’re _really_ annoying sometimes, you know that?”

“I don’t know what you expected.”

The door swung open before Tai could reach it. Summer stood on the threshold, silver eyes darting between them both. “What happened?”

Tai exhaled. “He’s like a giant child, Summer.”

Summer looked on, her confusion shifting to something gentler before Raven came up behind her, opening the door wider. She glanced down at her brother with her arms folded. “You’re an idiot, Qrow.”

—

The four were gathered in their room. A contemplative silence had taken hold of them all.

Tai stood against the door, arms and legs crossed. He was looking down at the ground, thoughtful, brows furrowed. Raven stood in the corner with a similar pose and Summer sat on her bed, legs kicking, as she looked between all of them. Qrow was leaning against the window and his eyes were fixed on the mid-day sun outside.

“Bad luck, huh?” Tai managed.

“Something like that.” Qrow said.

They were all quiet a moment. Tai looked up at him. “And can you control it?”

“Partially.” Qrow turned back to them. “Look, I…”

“So all this time.” Tai stepped forward “All this time…when we thought we just had a school full of exceptionally clumsy people and professors. _You’re_ the one who’s been causing all of that? The lights, the spilled coffee, the broken plates…”

“Tai…” Qrow tried.

“No.” Tai straightened. “I won’t hear anymore. I already know what we have to do.” Silence again, taut this time with uncertainty. “We’re going to stick you in the professor’s break room.”

Summer looked at him, startled. “What? No, Tai, please.”

Qrow, mouth opened to respond, shut it quickly. He swapped his brooding to confusion and studied his partner with some disbelief before responding. “Uh…what?”

Tai came towards him and threw and arm across his shoulders. “That’s all it is, right? Some bad luck? Think about it guys.” He gestured to the others as if framing a grand plan. “We could make exams even _more_ inconvenient for the teachers! Everyone stubs a toe! Mugs spilling all of the coffee! Destruction! Chaos!”

Raven frowned. “This isn’t the direction I imagined this would go.”

Qrow glanced at her as if looking for a lifeline but she did not meet his gaze and kept her arms folded before her chest. Tai drew back. “Look, Qrow, it’s not big deal. I know some people here who have stranger semblances. Like Raven’s.”

She glared at him. “Mine isn’t _strange._ ”

“It’s strange.” Tai assured her. “But yours…Qrow, did you even _think_ about the ways we could use this?”

Qrow was so unused to people joking about the very real detriment of his semblance that the smile that broke out was almost painful. “I didn’t…spend much time…”

Summer looked between the both of them. “I don’t think _pranking_ is the best…”

“Hush-sh-sh-sh.” Tai interrupted her. “Qrow…” He pressed a hand to his chest. “This is the best possible semblance for us to use.”

Qrow quirked his smile up even more, a bit less reluctantly now.

“No.” Raven stepped forward. “No. That’s not how this was supposed to go.”

Tai looked at her. “What did you expect, Raven?” He glanced at Qrow, hands on his hips, feigning authority. “You’re terrible, get out of this room before all the bookcases fall over.” Summer sheltered a soft smile. When Tai turned back to Raven his blue eyes sparked playfully. “He’s my partner, Raven.”

Raven looked away from him. Qrow did not. He looked at Tai as if he’d never seen him before. His uncertain expression returned, like a child poking at a wound to see if it still hurt. “Tai, you’re not…worried?”

“I can’t be.” Tai said. “I know you can’t help it. I can deal with some paper cuts.”

Qrow, determined to bring this point home, grew serious. He shook his head. “It’s about more than that. It’s…worse than that.”

“Or is that what people have been telling you?” Summer stood. “Plenty of people here have passive semblances too. Yours is just…well, a bit more influential. It doesn’t change anything about all of us and you said yourself that you can practice channeling against it when you focus, right? Well…we’ll just help you practice that. I’m pretty familiar with mediation.”

Qrow looked at them all. He seemed to swallow something thick and Raven had the urge to shake him and remind him what happened the other times he’d broken in front of the Elders as a child. When Hale and the others had taught them a lesson in reality.

Her hand still shook with thar fear. _They were not there._

But Qrow did not cry. He smiled, bright and big. It pulled something from Raven she could not quiet place.

“Let’s do it.” He looked to Tai.

Tai, catching his eagerness, reached out to clasp at Qrow’s shoulder. “We’ll start with the TA rooms. We’ll need to develop a plan of action. Does anyone else know about your semblance?” Qrow shook his head. “Perfect.”

Summer sighed but said nothing to dissuade them. Raven studied Tai. There was more to this deflection than a genuine interest in using Qrow’s semblance to forward their agenda of being the school’s most likely duo to earn detention. There was a kindness in Tai that existed similarly in Summer. But it was a far different expression of it. He was doing this for Qrow’s sake. He was doing this to keep his partner from darker thoughts. He was bringing him towards a lighter solution, ignoring the implications of the truth, to protect him. Raven had been attempting to do the same for years. Since he’d first manifested his semblance. Since the Elders had first banished them to the outer perimeter of the tribe’s main camp. But Tai was so…she looked away from them.

Dangerous.

The thought roared to her mind like water from a suddenly broken dam. She settled her expression into thoughtfulness. It’d been two months and this already felt like home. That viciousness she’d carried, that thirst for their mission’s end—it was falling deeper and deeper away from the surface. Her days were no longer on auto-pilot. There was an energy to them, an eagerness to get up each day and attend class and training and…have fun.

This was dangerous. She looked to Qrow and the laughter he was sharing with Tai and Summer. So easy for him. So easy to see the difference between these people and the Elders, the tribe. She could see him sitting outside their small hut again, gazing at the stars through the canopy of the trees. Seeing something farther. She wondered what he harbored in those moments, what thoughts circled him, what held him down to that spot. She’d always seen the road before her. And he’d always been there at her side.

_Dangerous._

She listened to the team’s laughter and small talk and it gave rise to a joy in her. This place was warmth, it was a _home._ And she knew she could not build a life on its foundations.

She had never failed a mission before.

She would not fail this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just...*clenches fist* love them


	7. Whose Faith In Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to make plug-in tech plausible because like, they need advances in tech at some time, don't they? So I figured they would advance by the time Ruby and them came around to like touch tech on tables or what not. You know how it be!!

Life at Beacon Academy was not the monotony she had expected. Raven was used to unorthodox teaching methods, but it was still strange to sit in on a class where lancers were let out of cages to wreak havoc on them as a surprise mid-term. It wasn’t a shock that their more personalized assignments consisted largely of field work involving Grimm-infested areas. And it was no surprise when Ozpin took notice of them.

Raven saw him lurking around the school, mug in hand. He stood in the tower windows, looking down like a king from a castle. He walked the grounds and lingered during the assigning of their first guided mission, sipping casually without a care in the world. Raven, and she imagined the others, were growing rather used to his presence.

Four months in he finally summoned them.

The Branwen twins stood in the tower office. The gears above whirred with a strange purpose. Raven had glanced up in awe and curiosity at first but quickly stifled the expression. If Ozpin had enough faith to handpick them from the incoming class for a personal meeting, she didn’t want to appear disarmed by it. But the truth was exactly that.

Raven was afraid.

When she glanced to Qrow she noted the same worry, although it was a different breed of concern. It had been some time since they’d spoken, one on one, about their mission. His friendship with Tai was becoming more of a loyalty than she had expected. His quiet training sessions with Summer were becoming a distraction. She hoped he was keeping his viciousness preserved, carefully buried, for when they’d need it.

“I’ve noticed you both.” Ozpin sipped from his mug.

“We’ve noticed you’ve noticed.” Qrow offered. Raven elbowed him. Ozpin smiled faintly, knowingly.

“You’re both very talented students. At least in your combat.” He added this with a glance at Qrow. “But there’s something else I’m curious about, actually…”

He held his scroll up and plugged it into a projector on his desk. An image lit up the air above. A familiar one. Elder Hale, without his mask, a man with a puckered scar down the left side of his face that bloomed red against his pallor. Qrow swallowed too loudly.

“According to the official records, you were home-schooled by a teacher in the northern region. I had no reason to question those documents until I started to notice some….particularities in your combat styles.” He gestured to the screen. “Do you know this man?”

Raven spoke before her brother could reply with anything snarky. Her tone was dark. “Sorry, we don’t.”

“Curious.” Ozpin clicked at his scroll, unfolding another image. The skeletal remains of a town on the front page of a newsletter. The ruins were being picked through by the tearful inhabitants who had been forced to abandon it. Raven knew the town. She had been there for the attack. “I dug a little deeper and contacted some…friends of mine who are familiar with the inner workings of a very particular group.” He looked at them both over his glasses, challenging a denial. “It seems there were two members who departed last summer, both carrying weapons on them. A Grimm attack was thwarted in a small town some days later by one of them. You think I don’t investigate all of my students? Even those from _Anima_?”

Caught. But they had prepared for this. Hale and the others had helped plant those seeds.

Raven looked away. “We were sick of playing thieves.”

“Were you?” Ozpin paced before the image. “Why did you decide to leave your people to come to my Academy?”

“They aren’t our people.” Qrow seeped the hate as if he really meant it. Raven glanced at him, surprised. His eyes were down, fists clenched. It drew something from her that was not anger but a familiar of it.

Raven looked to Ozpin. “We left them to come here to start something new. For us.”

“I can understand that all too well.” Ozpin said. “But why?”

They were silent a moment. A story well enough formed. Raven kept her gaze away. “It’s what we have. We can fight. We’ve fought for years. So why not? Why not protect people instead of…” She did not finish.

“Mmm.” Ozpin said. “Why not indeed.” He turned to Qrow. “And you?”

Qrow took a moment of thought, longer than Raven imagined he’d needed. When he looked next to Ozpin there was an unfamiliar fire in his eyes. “I want to help people.” Raven nodded along. Good. “I was…tired of fighting for them all the time. Of stealing and robbing. We were just kids, sure but…” He looked away. “That place was never our home. Here is where we belong.”

It sounded so convincing, so true, that Raven actually believed him. So, it seemed, did Ozpin.

The young Headmaster nodded. He picked up his mug from the table. “And do your new teammates know of your…origins?”

“Why do they have to?” Raven started. “We meant to escape. We don’t need anyone to know.”

“I don’t mean to cause you any alarm, Miss Branwen. I simply see potential in the both of you.” Ozpin said firmly. “And I want to make sure I’m not wasting my time on people who have no interest at truly becoming protectors.” Ozpin was quiet for a pause. “It’s not every year I see students of your caliber. I see plenty of talent, certainly, but nothing quite like what you two can do. I think you’re beyond some of what this school can teach you, and I’m interested in helping you push those limits.”

They were silent a moment.

“How?” Raven eventually asked.

Ozpin looked to her. “How?”

“How are you going to help us reach our ‘potential’?”

Ozpin was thoughtful a moment. He unplugged his scroll and drew it forward, slipping it into his pocket. He took a sip from his mug. “There are some missions I believe team STRQ would greatly benefit from taking. But these are by and large for more…experienced students.”

Raven cocked her head slightly. “Which is what you think we are.”

“These aren’t like your other missions.”

Raven furrowed her brow. “It makes no difference.”

“You are not team leader, Miss Branwen.” He gestured to the back with a hand spread out and Raven and Qrow both turned. They hadn’t even heard the elevator but saw its door shutting as it emptied Tai and Summer into the room. The two looked uncomfortable, almost guilty, as they gathered at Raven and Qrow’s sides. Summer offered Raven a soft smile that she found herself fighting hard not to return.

“I’ve already informed Miss Rose and Mr. Xiao-Long on my intentions to help hone your skills as a team. Now that you’re all hear, I’d like to get an agreement from each of you that this is what you want. If it’s not, you can return to your classes, to studying and slaying monsters, and forget I ever called you up here.”

“With all due respect, sir…” Taiyang held his hands out, “why us?”

“Why indeed.” Ozpin’s gaze drifted over to Summer and remained there for long enough that the girl began to fiddle under its scrutiny. Then he turned to the rest of them. “Why do you think, Mr. Xiao-Long?”

Tai grew oddly bashful. “We’re…talented?”

“Part of it, yes.”

“But there’s plenty of talented students here.” Summer offered. “I know Raven and Qrow are…better than most…”

“I see many students who tend to sell themselves short. You are not here because two members of your team are exceptionally talented fighters. You are here because all of you are gifted, in ways you may not even imagine you are.” He set his mug down. “This is not an easy choice. I will not coddle you during these missions. They are very real and they are very dangerous. But if you trust in your team and decisions, I believe you can succeed far beyond your expectations.” Silence aside from the winding gears overhead. “Your team is your family here.” Ozpin smiled. “And, all things considered, they should continue to be your family even when your studies here come to a close. This Academy will always be your home. So you, as a team, must decide what to do.”

Raven thought on that. Special treatment by the Headmaster of the Academy? Their ruse had already been coaxed to the surface, their excuses already told. Soon they’d run out of practiced scenarios and would have to begin improvising. She knew well enough the taste of those lies, but to Qrow they were still bitter things. And that worried her. They could not take this. There were too many unknown variables.

“We can’t—” She began but Qrow stepped forward first.

“We’ll do it.” He glanced at Tai, who nodded, and then Summer. The small girl smiled at him.

Raven felt her blood chill. It felt darker than betrayal in a way. Qrow meant every word of what he’d said.

She stiffened as Summer turned to her, trying to hide her rage. All eyes fell to her. To go against the others would incite further speculation. She’d been avoiding them enough lately to rouse some suspicion, and she did not need to add her sole dissent to that growing list. She nodded, flickering a glare to Qrow that he heartily ignored.

Summer gathered herself with an inhalation. She met Ozpin’s shrewd gaze. “Whatever you want us to do, we’ll do it. We’ll help in anyway we can.”

“So eager.” Ozpin looked down at her. His expression softened. “Your trust is not misplaced.”

Summer kept her silver eyes on him. Qrow’s hand fell to her shoulder as a reassurance and she glanced once to him, surprised. Raven felt Tai’s eyes on her before the young man looked to the Headmaster. “What do you want us to do?” He asked.

Ozpin smiled. “You will find that out soon enough.”

\--

“What happened back there?” Raven asked. She had her back against the tree, her focus on the soft grass beneath her shoes. Her arms folded against her chest. A bird sat singing in a branch overhead. Rage surged in her like adrenaline.

Qrow sat perpendicular to her, an arm resting on a bent leg. “Back where, Raven?”

“Did you mean what you said?” She glanced up. Above them, the leaves spread speckled shadows across them.

Her brother exhaled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I said the same thing you did.”

Raven drew her brows in. “You don’t think I’ve noticed? You and Tai think you’re so funny together. I see how you laugh with Summer. You’re not using them, you’re becoming them. Are you so easily swayed?” She turned her head to look down at him.

Qrow avoided her gaze. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“We have to talk about this.” Raven lowered her voice. “Now that we have Ozpin breathing down our necks. We could have avoided this all by turning his offer down. But _you_ had to agree. Why?”

“You could have told him no.”

“And what would Summer and Tai think of me then?”

“I don’t know, Raven, I didn’t think you cared.”

She opened her mouth to respond with a short, clipped insult. But she shut it quickly, turning from him and exhaling. “You know what will happen if we fail.”

“Nothing will happen, Raven. We just won’t go back.”

Raven spun to him, stepping away from the tree. “Not go back? Are you insane, Qrow? Or just a coward?”

“Coward?” He shook his head. “Come on. I’m serious, Raven. Headmaster Ozpin offered us something. What if we can use that? What if we can be something more than thieves and murderers and—”

Raven came to stand before him. He glanced up as her shadow chased the bits of light from him. “Watch your tongue.” She curled her fingers in to form fists. “That’s our family. The people who raised us. Who gave us both a chance in this world that we might not have otherwise had.”

“Some family.” He skirted his gaze to the side. Raven grit her teeth, hands still clenched at her side.

“What does that mean?”

“That place was never a home.” He began softly. “Those people didn’t raise us, they used us. Hale and Ivory and Quiver…”

“What about Armon?” Raven said.

Qrow looked up at her. “He’s different.”

“Is he?”

“I had someone I could look up to, sure.” He braced his palm against the tree to stand. “But no one else. They rejected me, Raven, because of what I was. They’re not my family. You are.”

“That’s touching.”

“Its true!” He drew closer. “We can do something here outside of stealing and killing. We’re good fighters, and if this Ozpin guy thinks we’vegot what it takes to do something more, I want to see where that can take us.”

“So now you want to ‘help people?’”

“Enough. I’m tired.” Qrow drew his bag off the ground. He lifted it angrily to his shoulder and moved to stalk off. “We’ll talk later.”

“No.” Raven grabbed at his arm. “We’ll talk now. I’ll ask this again. Did you mean what you said?”

Qrow did not turn to her. He shrugged her off. “And if I did?”

“I should have known.” She growled.

“If you cared enough you would have.” He spat the words scathingly and Raven stepped back.

“You’re too weak for this, Qrow. They should have sent me alone.”

“Because you’d blend in _so well._ ”

“At least I wouldn’t turn.” Raven held her chin up. Qrow stopped at the words. His head sunk slightly, as if his shoulders were pulling it down. He glanced at her from over his shoulder, hand still gripping the bag. In the bright daylight, his crimson eyes were sharp. “You’re just a coward like Armon was.”

“Armon wasn’t a coward.” There was no bite in his words, like Raven had expected, just resignation. “He didn’t fight because he knew it was _wrong_. But you never cared about that, did you?”

The words sunk like a knife. She did not feel the wound at first. Raven watched her brother walk off and thought of how many times she’d seen that same back turn on her. During raids he’d found too hard to stomach. During Grimm attacks on towns they pillaged that grew too gruesome. Raven had never had a weak stomach. But she’d had to deal with her brother’s.

She spat to the side as he left and folded her arms across her chest.

_Weak._

All of them were.

She had to keep her distance. She had to  _continue_ to keep her distance. Even if it was from Qrow as well.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More vibes, please.


	8. An Event Most Unfortunate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, we're back! Hope everyone's having a good December! Thanks to my first reviewer, commonArrows! Kind words always mean a lot :)

“This is a bit…below us.” Qrow noted. He had his arms folded before his chest, an eyebrow cocked. Summer and Tai stood besides him and Raven was behind them all, leaning against a pillar near the elevator in Ozpin’s office. It was becoming a familiar backdrop for them all.

“Perhaps.” Ozpin noted. “But I’m of the belief that you can handle that.”

Qrow glanced at Tai, who shrugged.

“And this person we’re going to find they’re…not a huntsmen anymore?”

“No.” Ozpin stated. “They are not.”

Raven turned from where she stood. Her voice was low. “Does he know that we’re still students?”

Ozpin pinned her with a knowing look that had been used often enough that it was beginning to piss her off. “I wasn’t aware you considered yourselves such. It’s been just under six months since you first came to this school, and some of you don’t seem the least bit concerned with your classes.”

His gaze drifted to Qrow and Tai, neither of who looked surprised.

“We’re concerned with classes.” Tai sounded as if he were trying to convince himself.

“Yeah, we’re also just concerned with _not_ failing at one of your missions too.” Qrow said.

“Exactly. Priorities.”

Ozpin was silent a moment. “Right. Priorities.” He tapped at his scroll. “Then you’ll have no problem with this mission. I’ll have a ship ready to take you into the town. I doubt you’ll encounter much worth fighting—”

“Then why send your best combatants?” Raven said. The rest of the team glanced back at her, almost afraid. She stepped away from the pillar. “Why send us on this mission? Aren’t there other teams who can take this on?”

“None who are currently available. And there’s something I’d like you to see. And hear.” Ozpin looked between all of them as Raven came to stand beside her team, to Summer’s right. The girl glanced at her and quickly looked away. She dragged her gaze up to Ozpin.

“Who is it we’re looking for?”

Ozpin stood from his desk. He snapped his scroll into its plug and the screen unfolded before them. “A man. His name is Jack. He’s defected from—well, let’s call it an enemy of mine’s—ranks.”

“An enemy?” Tai asked.

Ozpin did not look back at them. “Someone I’ve been keeping an eye on for a long, long time.” He was quiet and in the pause Summer shifted, almost with discomfort.

“A crime group?” She chanced.

Ozpin looked back at her and sipped from his mug. “Something like that.” He arranged a smile on his face that Raven found a bit forced. “Jack was never a friend of mine, but he’s willing to be an informant. I know his information is valuable, and I can’t risk sending out any of my other agents at the moment as they are needed elsewhere. It’s up to you four.”

“We won’t let you down.” Summer nodded. Raven glanced at the marbled floor and said none of the dissenting sentiments that circled her. She listened to the team talk more with Ozpin as details were laid out. Tai glanced back at her but she did not meet his gaze.

The gears above them clicked on slow and steady.

—

They travelled through clear skies. The team sat buckled in the back, jostling as the air currents shook their small ship. Tai was gazing out the window, transfixed on the landscapes below them. Summer flicked through her scroll and Qrow sat still with his eyes shut in focus. It looked a little like sleep, but Raven knew it was something more. She glanced out at the landscapes below. A ship had carried them to Beacon, so it wasn’t her first time in the sky, but the newness of it still struck something like awe and fear in her.

“Raven?” Summer’s voice, soft. “Are you…okay?”

Raven bristled at the concern. “I’m fine.” She said through the palm pressed against her chin. Summer settled back into her chair without another word. Maybe the darkness of her tone was enough to keep her quiet. Even Tai had felt it, sneaking curious and yet accusatory glances at Raven every few moments. Raven felt for all the world like she was about to burst under their scrutiny.

“Raven…” Summer tried, much quieter this time. Raven spun, a pit of anger roiling in her stomach.

“What?” The words came out harsh. Summer merely looked down to Raven’s hands. They were shaking.

“Here.”

“Here what?”

“Let me see your hands.”

Raven raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Are you nervous to fly?”

“Nervous to—” She snickered. “No. I’m fine, I already said that.”

“You don’t seem fine.”

“I’m fine.”

“Raven—”

“Stop, Summer, she’s already made it clear she doesn’t want to talk to us.” Tai offered lazily from his seat across from them. Raven and Summer both looked to him.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” The former asked, very darkly.

“Nothing. Just that you’ve been brooding and cold for the past few weeks and you won’t tell any of us why.”

“I have nothing to tell.”

“Are you sure?”

“Why do you suddenly care?”

Qrow’s eye twitched from where he sat and he sighed, shutting them tighter. “If everyone could be _quiet.”_

 _“_ No, I want to hear why Raven’s been so awful to Summer lately. She’s done nothing but try and help you—we all have—and you’ve done nothing but shut us away.” Raven’s fingers clenched at the seat’s arms, her lips drawn taut and her eyes slits of focus on the blonde across from her. “Even Qrow’s been out of the loop.”

“Don’t drag me into this.” Qrow said through grit teeth. “I’m trying to make sure we all stay in the air.”

“Yes, because that’s helped you so much in the past.” Raven snapped. The words slammed hard on the silence that followed.

“You don’t mean that.” Summer said softly.

“I do.” Raven met Qrow’s eyes and the shock in them gave her none of the pleasure she thought it would. But he was falling for a life she could not follow him to and it was that resentment, and the resentment of how tempting that life could be, that was bringing her to a point she could not move from. She felt trapped between everything she’d ever known and everything she could know. And everything that could go wrong in-between. A train stuck on tracks set down by others.

“Rav—” Qrow started but he did not finish. There was a great, bellowing screech and the ship gave a sharp lurch left before its lights stuttered. Then, there was darkness.

 

* * *

_Before Beacon_

_The raid was supposed to be simple._

_There was a small shipment of dust being carried to a nearby town, readied to supply the local huntsmen with a steady stock. Grimm sightings had increased in the area and they were being precautionary._

_So was the tribe._

_Qrow squat in the tree, hidden under a dark cowl. His small dagger was still sheathed. He closed his eyes. What he was supposed to be doing was granting them some of his luck. The focus was sharp. He let his semblance rise around him, feeling like he was falling into a dark pool thick with insistence. He tried to grapple with the ribbons of the energy that wavered unbidden around him._ Remember what Armon said _._

_The wheel of the truck popped off with a sharp snap._

_His eyes shot open. Behind him Raven, Quiver, and the others waited with dust-tipped bows and small daggers. There was a curse below him as the driver left, moving around the side of the truck to examine the damage. Qrow drew his dagger and gave the signal._

_The trees emptied of their thieves._

_The driver swirled as he heard the thump of feet on the earth. Quiver darted forward without a moment’s hesitation. He dashed his dagger forward and the man fell with a cry. Qrow remained in the tree. He had his fingers on the hilt but he could not move them. He stared at the red that began to pool on the ground where the driver had fallen. He watched Quiver and his women and men move around the truck, inspecting it._

_Raven stood beneath him. She glanced up at him. “Qrow. What are you doing?”_

_He shook himself and steadied his grip on the hilt as best he could to steady his convictions. He heaved himself off the branch to land in front of her. “Keeping an eye.”_

_“We have that taken care of.” She walked past him, uncaring, as she came to Quiver’s side. Qrow ignored the driver lying outside the truck. He felt the familiar bile rise and tried to act as if nonchalance in the face of death came naturally to him. Quiver spoke in lower tones with Raven as the group ransacked the truck, removing the cartons of dust with smiles and soft laughs. He glanced at the road behind them and then turned back, coming to stand a bit behind Raven and Quiver._

_“—Enough to seem random.” Quiver was saying. Raven nodded in agreement. She moved to join the others who gathered by the back of the truck. They were loading up a few small wagons with the boxes. Qrow stood behind Quiver, watching them all, when he heard his name._

_“Qrow.” He jumped as Quiver turned to him, arms folded before his chest. “Are you going to help?”_

_“Yeah, sorry.” Qrow rubbed at the back of his head. He glanced up at the truck’s dark windows. Something shifted inside and it stilled him. He swallowed._

_“Uh, Quiver?”_

_The man did not look at him. “What?”_

_“I think there’s—”_

_The passenger’s side door blew off. Qrow stepped back as the sound of the metal slammed onto the ground. The others spun, startled, dropping their boxes into the sanded road with a thud. A dark shape emerged from the truck, climbing to stand atop it. She was a tall, dressed in a stark white attire, and drew out a bow upon seeing them. Quiver’s eye grew wide._

_“A huntress.” He doubled back on Qrow. “You gave us the clear!” Qrow stepped back, wide-eyed._

_“I didn’t see—”_

_The woman fired. One of the arrows flew to strike the foot of one of the bandits nearby. The man bent over at the arrow’s impact, shouting in pain. The huntress surveyed them with blue eyes sharp as crystal. “Next time, I won’t miss the heart.” Her eyes found Quiver. “Cowards.” She spit the word. “The people of the towns ahead need this dust. What can any of you possibly gain from it?”_

_Quiver did not answer. He leapt up, his semblance activating as the wind tore at his back, lifting him to meet her on the truck’s top. He drew out his dagger. “Plenty, princess.”_

_The huntress narrowed her eyes and drew another arrow from the quiver. She nocked it, pulling the string taut to hold it in place as the tip lit with fire. “This is your last warning. I never miss twice.”_

_“There’s a first time for everything.” Quiver darted forward. Qrow felt panic rise in him like a tide, and his semblance burst out with a wave of power._

_The woman did indeed miss._

_The arrow sailed right by Quiver. He watched it slide inches from his cheek, embedding itself in one of the dust crates behind him. It did not take long for the metal to combust. Flames roared at the impact. Electricity cackled. Ice spun out, shards shooting into the earth and any nearby bandits. Quiver glanced over his shoulder, hair askew, eyes wide with rage as he surveyed the destruction of the crates below and the wounded beside them.._

_“What?” He shouted. The woman fired again at him. Quiver dodged, his movements as fluid as the breeze. She stepped back as she kept firing off at him, hoping to hit. She never did. When her hand eventually moved back to grapple for another arrow it found nothing. The air was growing thick with smoke from the exploded crates. Quiver darted forward but the woman spun to kick out from her position, spinning back on her gloved hands and landing on the ground some distance from the truck. Quiver chased her but she drew out a final arrow from a pouch at her hip. It was small but it unfolded, gaining in size as she nocked it. Quiver smiled and brought his arm up to land the final blow just as she let it loose._

_It struck Quiver’s shoulder, burying deep, just as Quiver’s dagger found its way into the women’s chest. They fell, rolling off one another in the dusty ground._

_“Quiver!” Raven shouted. She tore towards him as he struggled to rise, a hand hovering near the shaft of the arrow that rose from his shoulder. He was breathing heavy. Raven bent at his side. “Are you—”_

_“Don’t touch me.” He snarled. Raven stepped back as Quiver rose to stand. The man’s eye fell to Qrow. Behind them the others were shouting as the flames spread slowly towards the forest, snapping at the leaves of the trees. “It was you.” More than rage lived in that gaze. It was ire and pain and murder. Quiver stepped towards him, undaunted by his wound. “You.”_

_Qrow stepped back but the warmth of flames cut off his retreat. The uninjured bandits stood some ways away, watching carefully. Quiver held a hand to his shoulder. “You did this.”_

_“I—” But Quiver was already there, the wind aiding him. Qrow held his arms up as the kick slammed into him, sending him sprawling back into the thick of the smoke. He rose, his aura sparking, as Quiver closed in; a dark shadow of a man in the gathering flames. He held his dagger and Qrow’s eyes immediately fell to it. It was still stained red._

_In a moment, Raven was before her brother. Her hands spread out towards Quiver. “We need to leave.” She said simply. Quiver stared at her, breathing heavy through grit teeth. He seemed to gather himself as he shut his eyes and breathed in deeply. He straightened, still holding at his shoulder, and glanced around at the expectant crew._

_“Load up what we can. Get the injured to their feet. Let’s get out of here.” He dragged himself towards the others and they parted as he walked through their midst. Smoke and flame billowed in the midday air. Qrow remained with his palms on the ground. Raven said nothing. She moved to follow Quiver and left her brother behind. He watched her back, eyes bright with fear, as he curled his fingers against the dusted ground._

_Raven did not turn back to him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Voltron finished and I already miss it. Onwards, hyper fixation--to RWBY again!


	9. Crash the Burn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Lamb200345567 for the kind words! :) I always appreciate it! Hope everyone had a good break/holiday sesh!

Raven heard her name. It was faint and misted, but there. Her first instinct was to answer back. But she couldn’t. She was in a dark lull between sleep and waking and her mouth was thick with cotton. When her eyes finally opened there was fire.

“Raven!” Tai was before her, helping her from her seat. She gave into his strength with her own as they ran from what she was slowly piecing together as the wreckage of their ship. She glanced up at him.

“What happened?”

A sharp screech snapped from above followed by the stutter of a gun. She turned towards the sound and felt the wind rush through before the great wings soared over the ship, black feathers so close they could almost brush the flames. She stumbled onto the ground as Tai held her arm and spun.

“A Nevermore?”

“It attacked us.” Tai let her go, curling his hands in and pushing his arms forward to loosen his bracers. Their metallic snouts slid down over curled fists. “I have to help.”

Raven called to him as he launched himself forward with a burst of flame from the bracers. The Nevermore bristled at the impact he made when he hit and she watched it brush him off as he fell towards the trees. She scuttled to stand, drawing Final Parting from it’s sheath and spinning the rotary to ice.

Freeze the wings. It’s how she’d downed one before with Qrow.

Raven launched herself skyward. Her head pounded at the use of force. The wind was serrating and the pain momentarily blinded her. She clutched at her head as a screech tore her focus forward. The Nevermore brushed over her, sweeping her up in its wind and knocking her down.

She fell against the earth. The crash of the Grimm landed before her, sweeping dust across her form. She rose, slamming her blade into the ground to aid her to her feet.

She wouldn’t die from this.

Not today.

The Grimm snapped down at her and she readied a cry and drew out Final Parting. The metal deflected it first attack, knocking it back, before it roared to come down again. Its red eyes sparked like flares.

“Nice hit!” Qrow landed at her side, Harbinger in the one form she’d never seen him use before. A scythe. It curled gracefully where its heel met the ground. She watched her brother leap up. The Nevermore rose and his scythe came crashing down, slamming into the beast and sticking as a staccato of gun fire tore its wings to shredded holes. It cried as it fell. Tai came from above. A burst of lightening that sparked as he flew down, slamming the beast into the earth with a shaking shatter. Qrow clutched the handle and ran with his blade, making a clean cut along the entirety of the Nevermore’s body. He finished a whirl that severed its head. The great black thing fell with a thud before Raven, dissipating in the wind. Raven was too shaken to feel relief. She glanced up at where the rest of the beast had fallen as Qrow rushed to her side.

“Raven.”

“I’m fine.” She brushed him off. “Where are Tai and Summer?”

“Here.” The former crashed onto the earth at their side, creating a small crater as he landed, braced by his fists. “Summer’s here too.” The girl leapt from the tree she’d been using as cover, Bloom and Petal stashed in their holsters. She skidded to a halt as she came to Raven’s side.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m _fine_.” Raven ground out. She was sick of people asking that question. She drew Final Parting from the soil and sheathed it slowly, her eyes circling the small forest clearing that held them. “How far out are we?”

Summer stood at her back. She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Tai pulled out his scroll. “We can check. What’s the town’s name again?”

“Araval.” Qrow said, his back to the rest of them and his hands folded across his chest. Raven glanced at him. She saw Summer catch the glance. Raven stood to usher the group forward.

“Which way, Tai?”

“We head Northwest, we hit it by the end of the day.”

Raven felt their eyes at her back. “Then let’s get moving.”

—

They found the main road, paved only with red dirt, after a few minutes of trekking through the dense greenery. Spring bloomed in the outer parts of Vale uncontested. Trees became thick with leaves and flowers. Raven watched as the birds chittered through the branches, passing dark silhouettes over their already leaf-speckled shadows.

Their silence was morose. Raven brought up the rear and Tai was beside her, keeping a distance built from anger. Summer hung between them and Qrow was leading the pack, slouched and quiet.

Summer glanced back at Tai. “How much longer, do you think?”

“I’d say four hours at most.” Tai slid through his scroll. “I’d like to make it before nightfall. Service is bad enough out here that it’s tough getting a report in. We should able to send for some help closer to town.”

“Right.” Summer glanced at Raven. “Good idea.”

The silence resumed. It was a strange juxtaposition to the day around them, so full of light and sounds, and them so sheltered in something dark beyond it. Raven cast a glance skyward again, catching the rays of sun that filtered through the tree boughs. She remembered moments on the road when they’d been kids. Unconcerned as the tribe packed up and moved through the same kinds of forests to reach a new encampment. She remembered the sun felt just the same.

“That’s all?” Tai was at her side. He was not looking at her but his words were quiet enough for only them to share. “You’re just going to let this all go?”

“Let what go?” She did not look to him.

He exhaled in frustration and it sounded like a laugh. “Never mind.”

She turned to him. Qrow and Summer had walked ahead, lost in their own respective thoughts. “I’m not letting anything go, _Taiyang._ ”

“My full name, I’m intimidated.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“At least I’m not as big of a jerk.”

Raven clenched her fists at her side. “You think you know me—?”

“I don’t.” He shrugged, frowning. “That’s why I’m asking.” He came matched her brisk pace and drew closer. She had a strong, sudden urge to shove him away. An urge she had to try hard to resist. “You’ve been here for weeks and we don’t know anything about you.If we’re going to be a team…” He gestured to the others. “We’re going to have act like we _want_ to be one. What’s changed? Why are you acting like this?”

Raven stopped walking. “I told you, it’s nothing.”

“And I know it isn’t.” His hand fell onto her shoulder softly and she stared at it before meeting his eyes. It wouldn’t take much to throw him off of her but there was that urge again and she buried it. She couldn’t take the look of his eyes. It was curiosity and hurt and something deeper too. A place she did not want to go. “Please, Raven.”

“Enough.” She finally nudged him off. “I’m just tired.”

“Leave it, Tai.” Qrow, brows furrowed, glared at his sister with none of the sparked playfulness that usually softened the blow. “Just leave it.”

Tai glanced at his partner as Raven stalked off. He looked down, head shaking, before following the rest of their silence.

It was a quiet that carried them all the way to town.

—

Araval sat under dusk darkly. It was a small town nestled against the side of a small mountain. Puffs of smoke rose from warm homes even though the air was thick with spring heat. The walkways were sparse of people and when the townsfolk saw the four huntresses and huntsmen walking in their midst they kept a wide berth. It felt, to Raven, like a town holding something secret. A skittish place.

It did not bode well.

Tai kept an eye on his scroll. Their journey into town had been punctuated by little discourse outside directions. A tenseness hung over the group and it did not dispel as they closed in on their destination. Tai directed them until they stopped in front of a small tavern. Light was beginning to fade fast now and their only aid were the small lanterns the lit up the stoop of the tavern. Tai hesitated. “Should we just…go in?”

Qrow brushed past him, not unkindly. “It’s not like they’ll care.” He pushed the door open and it jangled sweetly as they entered. The interior of the bar grew silent. Conversations hushed and eyes found them where they stood on the threshold. Tai leaned towards Qrow. “Are you sure—” Qrow held a hand up. He strode towards the barmen, who looked none-too-pleased at the intrusion of strange teenagers, and leaned an arm on the bar to speak with him. They kept their voices low. Raven knew something in Qrow was bitter. Whether he blamed her or himself was difficult to discern. Probably both. The truth was an open wound still festering between all of them.

After a few terse words the man’s demeanor seemed to shift. He spoke with Qrow almost kindly and soon her brother was beckoning them over. The barmen swung open the small door that closed the bar off from the rest of the room and lead them down a back hall in silence. Lamps hung on the old wood. A door at the end of the hall stood out from the rest, its wood much darker than the walls. The barman opened it and beckoned them to enter, stepping aside to let them do so.

Here there was a single man seated, bent over a table, counting lien. A small, white duck was curled at his feet and it honked as they walked in. The man looked up at the sound and it seemed to be with relief.

“Ozpin’s men?” He said.

“And women.” Raven folded her arms before her chest. “And you are?”

“ _This_ is Jack.” Qrow gestured to the man. Jack nodded.

“I told him to send his best.” He pointed at each of them in turn. “But aren’t you still—?”

“Students, yes.” Qrow clarified, moving his pose to match his sister’s. It was an unconscious kind of mimicry they were both guilty of more often than not. “But we can deliver a message well enough.”

The man set down the pad he’d been scribbling on. His hands shook. He tried to cover them by pulling down overlong sleeves, but the tremors simply shook the fabric. “What has Ozpin told you?”

“About what?” Raven asked. Jack’s eyes fell to her.

“About anything.” Raven’s eyes narrowed to slits. Jack looked away from her. His eyes found Summer instead. “What has he told you about Salem?”

“Salem?” Summer said this softly, as if testing the word. Raven and Qrow glanced at each other but the latter quickly turned away.

“Nothing, I see.” Jack sighed. “Of course not.” He looked up at them all with red-rimmed eyes. “I just need him to know that I fled as soon as I could.” His hands began to fiddle, twining into one another. Nerves. “But I—I don’t think I can stay here long. I don’t think I can stay anywhere long. But I needed him to know. You’re in danger. All of you are. But you—” He pointed at Summer. “She’s coming for them. All of them. The Silver Eyes.”

Summer stared at him and Qrow stepped before her to block the man’s view. “Is that a threat?”

“Not from me!” Jack held his hands up. “But from her. She knows what they’re capable of.” He craned to look past Qrow to Summer. “What _you’re_ capable of. Ozpin must know. If he doesn’t, she’ll do it. She really will. She’ll kill them all.”

The words hung taut for a moment.

“Who is she?” Tai broke through gently. Jack turned to him, curious.

“She is…everything.”

“What does that mean?” Raven unfolded her arms.

Jack avoided their scrutiny. “She’s everywhere. Not matter what we do, she’ll always be there. Endless.” His hands flew to cup at his head. “No where is safe.” Jacke kept his head down. His voice was muffled as he spoke next. “You’re all in danger. Everyone is. She doesn’t want to stop at just the Silver Eyes. She won’t stop until it’s all gone. Until all of it’s…”

Raven turned to Summer and the girl stepped forward. Not a hint of fear lived in her words. “Who is _she_?”

Jack’s lips trembled as he looked away. Raven growled and stepped forward, fists clenched.

There was a roar that ripped through the air.

They all spun to the door and doused the room in thick silence. Only footsteps slightly creaking and their breaths against the stillness.

Then the screaming began.

—

Tai burst first through the door to the main bar. Raven and the others followed, drawing their weapons as they emerged. Panic had enveloped the room. People shuffled past them to push further into the interior, far away from the doors and windows. Roars took up a chorus outside.

Raven spun her rotary, eyes alert and shifting as she surveyed the room.

“We need to get outside.” Summer started for the door.

Raven held a hand out to try and grab at her cloak, ultimately missing. Her hand fell through the air. “What? Where all the Grimm are?”

Tai looked at Raven, jamming a dust shard into his left bracer. It’s eyes glittered red. “That’s what we do, Raven.” He tore after Summer and through the open doorway. Qrow hovered a moment at Raven’s side. Then, without a word, he tore after them both. She cursed. _Heroes._

Gunshots stuttered through the air as she ran into the open night. People ran past her, sprinting to escape the dark forms that were emerging from the forest, red-eyed and vicious. Raven saw a Creep lumbering towards a group of men, one of whom had fallen. She clicked her tongue as she leapt up, spinning with Final Parting in the air and coming down heavy on top of the beast. Sparks skittered across its thick hide. She leapt back, spinning her rotary again, and charged as it turned its attention to her. She jumped again and Final Parting crystallized with ice as she brought it down again, stabbing it through the Grimm’s head. Within moments the creature was ash.

She heard the staccato of Summer’s Bloom and Petal, raining down on more creeps that had gathered near one of the houses. She saw a blur of yellow flicker sparks against the ground and she felt it shake at her feet, upending three more creeps. Tai. The tree line held the sound of striking metal and she spun to see Qrow engaged with two ursa. Too many. What had happened in this town to warrant such an attack? Was there some well of negativity these people were feeling? She heard a cry at her back and spun to engage with another two creeps that were scuttling along towards her. Final Parting was readying in her hand.

Her mind spun as she fought them. This many Grimm was too concentrated. Something in the back of her mind warned her to run, to leave before the Grimm overran the town. She’d seen it plenty of times in the past, when their raiding had gone south and the packs that emerged smothered the town in fire. She’d watched them burn from the trees with the wind at her back.

Huntsmen were a problem, but Grimm were their biggest enemies.

She spliced one down the middle and went for the other. A cry went up and she saw Tai come down atop it instead. He landed and spun, slamming an uppercut against its jaw. It flew skyward, screeching before it faded to black.

“We can’t take them all.” Raven panted. Tai spun to her, breathing just as heavily.

“We have to call for backup.”

“They’ll never make it in time.” Raven shook her head. “We need to leave.”

A tree crashed down and they spun to see it slam down on an ursa. Qrow cried out and spun to sever its head. He stepped back, panting, as Summer landed at his side.

“I guess your bad luck _does_ come in handy.” She noted.

Qrow looked to her, leaning on Harbinger. “I don’t think we can do this much longer.” He glanced over his shoulder at a procession of creeps that were making their way over to them, seeming in no rush to take the village.

“This isn’t right.” Summer shook her head.

Raven and Tai came quickly to their sides and they all turned to face the incoming creeps, teeth grit. “We don’t have a much of a choice.” Qrow said. He nodded to Summer. “What’s your plan?”

Summer separated Bloom and Petal, drawing the daggers before her. “Keep them preoccupied so the townspeople can escape.”

“To where?” Raven asked.

“They’ll have a plan.” Summer glanced at her, “most towns do.” And then she darted forward, bent low, swiping at the first Grimm. The others followed her lead.

—

There was a time when Raven had truly been afraid of Grimm. Before she’d forged her weapon, before they’d begun training in earnest—there was a time that predated her anger and had stoked a fear in her. Black beasts rising from flames, dark silhouettes with raking claws tearing down her fellow tribe members. All of it had been too much once.

And then she’d had no say in the matter.

She fought, or she died. It had always been so simple.

Seeing the waves of Grimm now, the uncanny familiarity of that fear was beginning to shine again. It was like a gem in the bottom of a deep well, just visible in that darkness. She sliced at a creep and as it faded she nearly fell back against the ground, exhaustion coating her like cold. Her hands shook. _Fight or die._

“We can’t…” she panted, “we can’t _do_ this, Summer!”

“We have to try!” The girl was at her side, bent low to fire at the ranks of Grimm that were tearing from the forest. It was a slow process of aiming. She fired off her dust cylinders and was left with the remains of her hard, dust-tinged traditional ammo. Raven had drawn most of the dust from Final Parting too. It was a blade and nothing more now. Good enough in most fights, but dangerous here. She shook her head.

“We have to go.”

“We can’t abandon this town.”

“Then we’ll die with it!” Raven shouted as a beowolf leapt at her. She held Final Parting up to block the blow and its claws scraped the metal as it pushed her back, jaw wide and snapping. She shouted and spun to slam the blade into its stomach, slicing up and kicking it back. It rose slowly from the ground. She could not keep this up. None of them could. If they wanted to die heroes in a no-name town in the north, that was their call. She sheathed Final Parting. “I’m going to find Qrow.”

Summer held a hand out to snatch at her. “Raven, you can’t! We have to stick together!”

Raven looked back at this girl. Summer was desperate, eyes wide and fearful. But she was still fighting. Raven looked away. “How can you want to stay here? This town is done for. We have to leave while we can!”

“We have to _protect_ these people while we can!”

“Raven! Summer!” It seemed to happen so slowly. She glanced over to where Tai stood, bracing himself against a tree. She whirled back to find herself facing a beowolf much larger than the rest. An alpha. It seemed to look right through her, red eyes fixated on them both. She stepped back, sheltering Summer behind her with an instinct born from memories. Her hand was out to stop the beast, her eyes wide, as the Grimm leapt up to come down on them, jaws unhinged.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RIP pilot boi 2.0 no one even checked on him


	10. Why We Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to update this a thousand years ago!! AH!

_  Before Beacon _

_“You want us to…what?” Raven sat before the fire, staring into it. Qrow had asked the question where he sat at her side._

_Elder Hale was seated before them, joined by Ivory and a few others. Their masks were darkly lain with shadows. “We want you to attend Beacon Academy.”_

_“Beacon?” Raven spoke up. “Why Beacon?”_

_“It’s our best chance.” Ivory said. “We’ve already gotten the forgeries out to their respective dealers. We just need an appropriate cover story. That, of course, is where you two come in.”_

_“Why?” Raven leaned forward. “Why us?”_

_A small chuckle. The twins glanced in unison to the corner of the room where Quiver sat. He had his back to the wall, his bludgeon in his lap.”Because you’re the right age. And you’re the best fighters we’ve got.” He looked at them. “If you want to kill a huntress you have to think like one.” Raven’s brow furrowed as she studied the man. His shoulder wound had healed but was still covered with a gauze patch. He sat away from the rest of them, observing their conversation only with permission from the Elders._

_“Killing huntresses?” She turned back to the Elders._

_“They’re thorns in our sides. They disrupt our trade almost as much as the Grimm do. And, unlike the Grimm, they cannot be utilized for the good of our raids. We cannot hire them for mercenary missions. So you two—” her bony finger fell between them, “will learn how to kill them.”_

_“That’s…” Raven exhaled. “We’ll need training and weapons and—”_

_“Quiver will be training you both.” Hale gestured to the man and Quiver caught Raven’s eye and raised his eyebrows, smile cocksure. Qrow did not look at him. “And you will be forging your weapons especially for this occasion with one of the best.”_

_“Huntsmen weapons?” Qrow asked, in awe. He leaned forward a bit, more eager now then Raven had imagined he should be. “We’ll be…forging our own weapons?”_

_“Yes…” Hale looked to him and his voice held a strange intonation. “They will be with you just like they are with the other huntsman. So choose them carefully.”_

_Qrow had too stifle a smile. Raven looked down. A mission. An infiltration mission. She glanced back up at the Elders. “When do we begin?”_

_—_

_The dagger whizzed past Raven’s ear. She heard the thunk of it hitting the tree at her back. Quiver paced, tossing a dagger and flipping it in the air. “Once more, Qrow.”_

_Her brother stood a few meters before her, aiming steady. His red eyes were focused as he shucked the next blade. Raven barely flinched as it soared right over her head and into the wood. Her breath of relief was only partially hidden. “Enough, Quiver. It’s my turn.”_

_“Not yet, Raven, Qrow’s a great aim. Although I’m surprised his luck hasn’t made him hit you yet.” Quiver laughed at this joke, catching the blade he had been tossing and lobbing it at Raven. She shut her eyes and heard the thunk of it below the others, right beside her arm. She cracked an eye open to see it there, pinning her sleeve to the tree. She glared at their teacher._

_“This isn’t proper training, Quiver.”_

_“I beg to differ.” The man smiled. He drew another dagger from his hip and slid a finger along the dulled edge. He gestured at Qrow with it. “Switch places with her.” Qrow swallowed but obeyed. Raven stepped away from the tree with great relief. She drew out the four blades with a grunt of effort._

_“Miss please.” Qrow whispered as she passed him. Raven didn’t entertain the humor._

_Raven walked back to stand before Quiver. She widened her stance and readied the first blade. “It’s fortunate, really.” Quiver said from behind her. She tossed it. The metal found the tree bark and bit deep right beside Qrow’s ear. To his credit, he barely flinched. His eyes were trained on hers as hers had been on him. Quiver continued his pacing behind her. “Beacon Academy is a_ prestigious _school. To let you two attend…” He chuckled. “Well, it’s like a dream come true I bet. A mission all your own.” Raven threw the next blade. It landed above Qrow’s head, right beside the other indent from his blade. He glanced up at the hilt and swallowed. Quiver came to her side and slid his gaze to her. “Have you decided on a weapon yet?”_

_Raven tossed the third blade. It landed on Qrow’s left side, right beside his elbow. Just slightly lower than the dagger on his right. Raven cursed her clumsy aim. She gathered the next blade and studied its sharp metal a moment. “I haven’t thought much about it yet.”_

_“How about you, Qrow?” Quiver turned his head._

_Qrow looked to the side. “I…have an idea.”_

_“You do?” Quiver tossed his blade again. “Do tell it.”_

_Raven paused on tossing the next blade. She knew her brother’s weapon. She’d seen him sketching it on the floor of the hut. He’d tried to hide it beneath his other belongings but she saw it peeking out. A few days ago, when curiosity got the better of her, she stole it from where it had been hidden. She knew the inspiration for it too. She’d seen Qrow flipping through a stolen magazine for huntsman and huntresses. He’d dog-eared the page bearing the picture of her. His sketches looked just like her weapon._

_“I…it’s a scythe.”_

_“A scythe?” Quiver laughed. “You? How pretentious.” He nodded to Raven. “Toss the last one.”_

_Raven did. It landed inches from her brother’s cheek, far enough away from him that it hardly looked like she was aiming at anything more then the tree. Quiver clicked his tongue. “You got scared.” Raven looked down. “Well, Branwens. You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you if you want to be close to huntress levels of fighting. Raven—you need to think of a weapon. You need to think of one that speaks to you. Like…Horror, for example.” Quiver gestured to his bludgeon leaning against another tree. “I forged him to fit my more…daring traits.”_

_“Daring.” Qrow snickered. Quiver turned to him, tossing his blade up._

_“What was that? Tell me then, Qrow, why do you want your weapon to be what it is? Why a_ scythe _? That’s a very hard weapon to master. Are you sure you can manage it?”_

_“We can.” Raven began. “We can manage it, Quiver. And I do think I have an idea of what my weapon is going to be.” She met his look of surprise with determination. “I don’t see how you questioning us is going to make that process any different. We will go the Beacon. And we will do what we must.”_

_Quiver hesitated a moment before smiling. “Very good, then.” He tossed the final dagger he held and it bit into the tree right beside Qrow’s cheek, drawing a thin line fo blood. Her brother flinched and stepped away, turning back to the tree and the blades buried in its bark._

_Quiver kept his smile. “Let’s see just what you end up wielding, then.”_

* * *

Raven did not mean to move. She only knew that it was instinct. She only knew that Summer—however naive and simple and strange—could not come to harm. Not on _her_ watch.

The portal snapped open at their backs.

Raven shoved Summer down into its red swirl. The relief came fast but she could not stop the Grimm’s attack. It fell against her, teeth tearing into her shoulder. She felt the familiar pinch in her gut as the portal sucked her back, the Grimm’s head coming with it. She snapped it shut as her back hit the ground, severing the beast’s head as it closed. The thing flopped into the ground before her as she scuttled back against Summer, one hand held to her bleeding shoulder. In a blink of dark dust, the creature’s head faded.

Qrow dropped down onto the ground ahead of her. “Raven!” He came to her other side as she lifted her hand gently from the wound and glanced at it with a grimace. Deep. It serrated the skin, burying deep enough that the red bubbled up thick and bright. She clutched at the wound as Qrow worked to shred a piece of his red cape. Summer held her as her brother worked to deftly tie a tourniquet. It cinched tight under arm, tied around her shoulder. The fabric blended well with the injury. Raven managed a smile. They had learned rudimentary first aid as kids once their perceived invincibility of childhood had been lost and it was nice to see those skills in action.

“Where’s Tai?” Qrow asked her and she shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

“We have to leave.” He tried to help her to her feet with Summer’s aid.

Pain slammed into her as soon as Raven stood. She sucked her breath in, keeping the outburst from Qrow. But he noticed her expression anyway and glanced quickly at Summer. “We need to find Tai.” The girl only nodded. “Take her while I look. Get as far from here as you can.”

“What about you? And Tai?” Summer began.

“We’ll find you both.” Qrow adjusted to let Raven lean more heavily on the smaller girl. Raven shook her head.

“Don’t bother, Qrow. We need to leave while we can right now.”

Qrow did not look at her as he drew out harbinger again. “I’m not leaving Tai.”

Raven bit down on a growl. “Don’t be ridiculous, Qrow, you can’t take them all!”

But her brother had already leapt up, dashing towards the sounds of a battle near the center of town. Raven and Summer stared after from where they stood on the edge of the forest. Raven clenched her fist at her side and slammed it against her thigh.

“Dammit!”

Summer moved to spin them. “We have to get you somewhere safe.”

Raven had the urge to shove the girl off of her but she knew her injury wouldn’t give that movement much bite. “I thought you wanted to fight?” She snapped instead. Summer did not look at her as they made their way deeper into the woods, turning their backs on their friends. When Summer said nothing more Raven clicked her tongue against her cheek and gave into the silence.

The forest grew deeper. It covered the sounds of distant battle with the silence of the thick woods.

Their breaths grew to be the only real cacophony. Raven struggled to try to reign her thoughts in, keeping the anger from seeping out. She imagined Summer was doing the same. It wouldn’t help to leak their nerves like water like a stream for the Grimm to follow. The weight of Raven seemed to get the best of the girl and she began to pant as they wove more up an inclined hill, stepping over unruly roots and plump patches of grass. Eventually Summer set them both down against the thick trunk of an old oak, leaning heavily against it to gather her breath.

For a few moments, neither of them said anything. Raven felt lethargy getting the better of her. It was an insidious creeping of detachment, and uncaring she did not want to succumb to. Minutes past that she became unaware of. Summer was at her side, a hand on her good shoulder. She had drawn Bloom and Petal as a precaution and stood protectively, her expression set.

A sound to their right snapped both their attention there. Raven sat forward, fingers sliding along the sheath of Final Parting, eyes flitting through the underbrush. Summer held her weapons ready.

Tai landed before them in a burst of leaves. Raven glanced up to watch Qrow descend a moment later. Summer’s relief was palpable as the tension in her shoulders fell. She sheathed her twin blades and rushed the boys as they gathered closer. “We were beginning to worry.”

Tai rotated his shoulder with a grimace. “There’s no need for that.” He managed until his focus drifted over to Raven. The facade of ease faded. “What happened?”

Summer slid her focus to the side as Tai came to squat before Raven. Qrow walked to join at his side. “Raven…”

“I’m fine.” She managed brusquely.

“You don’t look it.” Tai glanced back at Qrow, who sported a small cut on his forehead but seemed otherwise unharmed. For that Raven was entirely too grateful. She leaned farther back against the rough bark of the tree, a hand held to the wound. “We need to get her somewhere safe.”

Qrow looked to his partner. “Is there another town nearby?”

“I’m not sure…” Tai stood and reached for his scroll. “I got a signal in town…there’s hardly one out here but maybe they’ll be able to find us. News of Araval will reach Beacon eventually. We might just need to wait it out. Once they don’t find us at the pickup site, they’ll know to search our location.”

“We can hope.” Qrow folded his arms before his chest, having wiped at the blood over his eye with his shirt. He glanced around. “Do you think we’re okay out here?”

“I think we need to get to higher ground, get a better vantage point.” Tai was looking down at his scroll. “Summer—you and Qrow can scout. Find someplace that might be best for us to take shelter. And keep an eye on any Grimm.”

Qrow nodded.

“We shouldn’t split.” Raven offered darkly. They all looked to her with concern she did not want. Her red eyes darkened as they fell on each of them. “We’re easier to pick off that way.”

“Who’s picking us off?” Tai asked. “The Grimm didn’t follow us that we could tell. They seemed pretty focused on the town.”

Qrow looked perplexed a moment at this. “Yeah. They didn’t even try to follow us.”

“And I know plenty of people made it out, there were a few other huntsman that helped.”

“How did they come so quickly?” Summer started. “All of these towns are supposed to have warning systems of some sort.”

“Powerful ones too.” Qrow added.

“So maybe Raven’s right.” Summer began, moving to stand beside her partner. “We’ll be better off together.”

Tai studied Summer a moment before nodding his acquiescence. “Let’s try to find the road. That should lead us somewhere. There might be survivors we’ll need to help.” Qrow and Summer nodded at this. Tai came to stand before Raven, looking harshly determined as the shadows set against him.

“Can you walk?”

Raven rose from where she sat against the tree’s curving roots, one hand clutching at her wrapped wound.

“I can walk just fine.”

She stalked past Tai, ignoring his extended hand, and stormed past her brother and Summer too. Together, they left the town and their questions behind.

—

The night grew deeper and as it progressed Raven felt strongly like she was the reason for this stopping and discussing tactic Tai and Summer seemed to be pursuing. Tai would call them to a halt for a moment to try and survey their surroundings with the light from his scroll as if it offered a sight beyond the twisted branches of the thick woods and the tumult of leaves over their heads.

Soon enough Raven grew indeed too tired to continue. Qrow noticed the exhaustion first, being familiar enough with it. Raven tried to keep him from voicing the concern but he rounded on Tai and Summer anyway and exchanged a soft whisper that had the blond man nodding in agreement. They set down in a small clearing a few moments later, beside a small stream that trickled through the woods. Qrow declared that they’d follow it in the morning.

Raven sat with her back against a trunk. Qrow came to sit at her side. Together they watched the shadows of Tai and Summer at the other end of the small clearing. “Handy semblance.” Qrow observed faintly. Raven, eyes half lidded with exhaustion, did not bother nodding an agreement.

Tai stood still, feet spread slightly, as he focused on the space around them. Qrow had heard his partner mention his semblance in passing before. It was an often unremarked upon thing. But here and now a masking of that nature would provide them with a steady enough cover against the Grimm, regardless of the negativity that seeped from them all. Tai had his hands spread out and the Branwens watched the faint shimmer of gold ripple through the air like still water disturbed by rain. It curved around the tree that held their backs, creating a field of iridescence that faded just as quickly as it flowed. Qrow spun to follow its progression until it came full circle. Now it shrouded them, an invisible barrier that hid them from even the most sensitive of Grimm and huntsmen. Raven often thought of the applicability of such a thing for the tribe during raids.

The four of them gathered around a small fire, sparked to life by Tai's remaining remnants of fire dust. They sat steeping in silence, as the night grew deeper and darker. Qrow rose to survey the scene, reaching a hand up to a stray firefly that had wandered into their small shielding. It hung just out of reach.

“So…do you think they’ll find us?” He asked. Tai was on his scroll, his grim expression lit from beneath.

“We have no service here. It’ll be a shot in the dark for them to find us. We’ll have to wait for morning. I’m sure they know about the village, at least.”

“Yeah.” Qrow managed a smile. “And I bet ol’ Ozpin isn’t that worried about us.”

“Headmaster Ozpin.” Tai corrected.

“Whoever.” Qrow rolled his eyes. He turned. “How are you feeling, Raven?”

“Better.” She answered. But the truth was not that. She was feeling ragged with exhaustion. She needed an actual doctor, an actual hospital, and she needed it three hours ago. But Raven knew this would not kill her, and so the temptation to whine and groan about the pain did not come. “Are you sure we should be resting here?”

“We’re fine.” Tai assured her. “We all need it. Have a little faith in my semblance.” His soft smile found her unwilling.

Raven did not take the bait for a quiet conversation. She focused on the flames that burned before her. Like home. Like that small hut in the woods that still held too much of her. She imagined how it would feel to return to those four walls after the years were done or even just these months—would they feel the same? Would it still be there as it always had been? Would they have to pack up and move it all like so many times before, a trail of travelers through the woods in seasons of snow and rain and wind. She thought back on those days and they stole her away as they so often had. So many small memories that stuck to her like downy snowflakes, unfading on an open palm.

“We should all get some sleep.” Summer rose from where she sat. Her silver eyes roamed over all of them. “Qrow and I will take first watch.”

Qrow stood and left Raven’s side. In the fire, the shadows of his face seemed somehow longer. Raven glanced to the side where Tai sat poking at the fire. He seemed focused on the spark of fire and, likely, keeping his semblance from crashing all around them.

When Summer and Qrow moved to the farther end of the warded area, Raven eyed her brawny teammate. Tai was silent a moment as Summer and Qrow’s conversation drifted softly over to them. Indiscernible and soft.

“Why did you do that?” Tai asked her suddenly, quietly, his brows set. Raven looked away from him and into the fire. It comforted her. The sound of it snapping and the trails of its embers. She thought of the Grimm and Summer and the town. The pain in her shoulder was a throbbing menace to her otherwise relatively cognizant thoughts.

“You would have done it.”

“I would have.” Tai set the stick he’d been using to prod at the fire down. He spun to her, resting his arm on a bent knee. “But you…” He stopped himself, “never mind I just…”

Raven studied the flames. “When Qrow and I were kids we fought a lot. But no matter what, I always swore I’d protect him.” She could feel Tai’s eyes on her. Whether it was the intoxicating lull of exhaustion of the warmth of the flames against her skin, she felt the truth unraveling inside her. A story she wanted to tell. “I don’t know what happened. I just…acted.” She exhaled. All of this, vines twining against her heart. “I didn’t think about it.”

Tai let out a small breath. She turned to find him smiling at her, blue eyes gentle. “We’re a team now. You have to tell us what you’re feeling. You have to trust us. I know you aren’t a bad person…”

She glared at him. “You thought I was a bad person?”

Tai’s smile faded. He became exasperated, scratching nervously at his nose. “Well, no, I mean, of course not, I just…”

“I’m not a hero, Tai.” She moved her focus to the fire. “I just did what I could.”

“I know. That’s what a huntress is, sometimes.”

“I not one of those. Not yet.”

“You are. The moment you stepped into this school you became one. Didn’t you?” He said as he looked away from her. She studied him a moment and shoved down the intrusive want to draw closer to him, to talk more about heroes and monsters and what it all meant. Instead she turned her back on him and set down for the night on her back, watching the stars unmoving overhead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gen:lock is superb everyone you should def check it out!


	11. In This We Run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I was gone, I hope everyone wrote 1,000 words on the graceful geometry of cable-knit sweaters.

They woke to the sound of engines in the air.

Raven’s eyes shot open. Birds cleared out overhead, their cries resistant as they fled their canopy home. A dark shadow gathered over the four students, bending the trees. Raven stood and Summer came to her side to help. A bit unnecessarily, she thought.

The ship did not land, but it did throw down ladders that unfamiliar huntsmen and women came down. Together with their help, the four were ushered into the vessel. Together, in a silence broken only by whirring engines, they went home.

—

“How many people know about this?” Team STRQ stood in the Headmaster’s office, all of them thickly wearing doubt. Qrow had asked the question and it wavered in the air as Ozpin set his mug down on the table and exhaled, prolonging the unwelcome silence.

“Not many. And you are the most recent additions.”

Raven looked out the wide window of the high room in the tower. The school sat below, continuing classes in their absence. And they were here, above it all, chosen by this man to bear witness to some truth they had never asked to harbor. Raven’s hand moved to her shoulder, conscious of the ribbon of gauze and bandage that had been tied to the wound. Conscious, still, of the vestiges of pain. Summer stood at her side with a resoluteness she did not share.

Raven hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to the team in private after the airship had come to retrieve them from the forest. They’d flown over the remains of the towns, ashes now, and the flow of people returning to homes that no longer stood. The Grimm had all but vanished, the last of their corpses wavering into black smoke as the team passed overhead. The trip had been quiet in the company of the few huntsmen and huntswomen Ozpin had sent after them. Raven had not looked at her teammates. Not even Qrow, whose eyes she could feel studying her, whose anger was likely still kindling ready to spark.

She still had not gotten time with them. They’d all spent the night in the medical ward, cared for by the ever-talkative and attentive Evergreen, a doctor whose semblance allowed him to strengthen others’ auras and more rapidly heal their wounds. Time in the man’s presence had exhausted her to the point that when Ozpin summoned them all to his office after breakfast, she realized she was ready to scream with the need to be alone for a moment, to process things.

The others, she imagined, felt the same.

But they stood there nonetheless, the bright daylight bleeding across the floor and the gears turning overhead. Ozpin studied them behind his glasses, eyes light and infuriatingly knowing. “I imagine you all have plenty of questions.”

“An understatement.” Qrow growled.

“The Grimm…” Tai began, looking down. “There were so many…”

“Who is Salem?” Summer looked up and the others glanced at her before averting their gazes again. Raven was the only one to keep it on the girl. Ozpin took another sip of his coffee, which was still steaming, and moved to the other side of the table. He faced the window outside, his reflection faint on the glass.

“The right question, Miss Rose. She is…” Ozpin exhaled. “Someone I’ve been trying very hard to stop. A woman who seeks nothing less than the utter annihilation of our world.” Silence. “The Grimm…she called them to Araval.”

Tai shook his shaggy head. “Impossible. No one can _control_ the Grimm.”

“She can manage something like it.” Ozpin began.

“What does she want with Summer?” Qrow again. His red eyes were dark. Summer glanced at him with a strange softness to her gaze, and Raven felt something bubble in her stomach at the exchange. Shame?

“You possess an…interesting ability, Miss Rose. There are few like you. Salem…fears you.” Ozpin turned, carefully considering the words. “But I promise you this. I will do everything in my power to protect you while you attend this institution. And beyond that.”

“How is this possible?” Qrow gestured. “What is all of this…the Grimm, this…Salem. What does all of it mean?”

“It is another battle we must fight. One in the shadows. One I imagined you’d want to know existed outside of my telling you. Jack was once loyal to her. When he saw the truth of what she wanted…he fled her services. I wanted you to see what he feared, so that you might know why I chose you.” He looked to them all.

“ _Chose_ us?” Qrow snarled. It was not his usual anger. It was something born of fear and injury. Hackles raised to an expected attack. “We could have died because of that mission.”

“And yet here you are, Mr. Branwen, able to feel that anger. I didn’t think either of you feared something as fickle as death, given your past.” His focus shifted between the two siblings, long enough that Tai and Summer exchanged a quick look. Raven felt ice in her veins. It was impossible. He _couldn’t_ know who they were. But there was something in his tone, in the sparkle in his eye, the slight turn of his lips. She clenched a fist at her side. _Impossible._

Ozpin turned from them once again, ever the image of a wizened old man giving sage advice. Raven thought it looked more like cowardice. He didn’t seem concerned that they’d done this under his order. He didn’t seem to regret sending them out. And he knew things he was keeping from them. Secrets stuck in wax from a flame unlit, and she wanted to burn them from him.

After a breath, he began again. “All of our fairytales have truth in them. From the oldest to the youngest stories, people can’t lie when they paint those pictures. Heroes are never without origin. Sometimes those stories are more than fairytales, but we lose sight of what they were as they flow further and further away from where they started. Time has a way of stripping things to their simplest forms, sometimes for the better.”

“The point?” Qrow drawled. Ozpin turned back with a smirk. “There is magic in this world, Mr. Branwen, and there are those who seek to control that magic. The Grimm are tools, and so Salem uses them. It is a battle in the shadows, one I entrust to few.”

The students were silent in the room as the words washed over them. Raven felt as if she were opening a door better left sealed, and she felt fearful for it. “Why entrust it to us?” She could not take the words back. They were out, curious and serious, and Ozpin scrutinized her.

“Because you are talented.”

“That’s not good enough.” She stepped forward. “Plenty of students here are talented. What do we have that they don’t?”

“Summer.” Qrow said softly. They looked back at him. “That man—Jack—he mentioned silver eyes. He meant Summer.”

“Indeed he did.” Ozpin moved back to where he could face them and leaned his back against the table, taking another sip of coffee. Raven wasn’t sure if habit made him do that or if it was a nervous way of creating pauses. Or if he simply enjoyed his coffee and did not let the weight of conversations take that away. She had a feeling it was the latter. “Do any of you know what silver eyes are?”

Summer looked away. “My mother told me about them. Said they were a gift.”

“A gift.” Ozpin repeated the word as if it did not belong. He sighed. “Silver eyes are a tool. A powerful one. One Salem is after, one she has been after for years. It’s a blessing that all of you are so gifted, because fate has chosen you whether you like it or not. Salem will hunt down all of those with silver eyes, and Beacon can only keep those attempts at bay for so long. Without stopping her…Miss Rose will always be in danger.”

Team STRQ was quiet. Everyone looked away, down at their hands or the windows outside. Raven gripped at her injured shoulder. At least Ozpin had given them that truth. It wasn’t just a sort of special syndrome, they had to learn this truth with Summer. As teammates, they were expected to bear that burden together. Raven clenched tighter at the wound to feel its resorting pain.

Dammit all.

“What do you want us to do?” Tai asked. Ozpin’s brows furrowed.

“I want you to learn. I want you to fight. And, when the times come, I want you to join me in stopping her in anyway we can. For the future, for the present.”

The present. The _future._

The future was a luxury, a security she did not have. Every day offered new challenges, new chances. Every day out there she could have died. And yet here she stood, realizing that all of this was leading to a future she did not know she could have. All these kids had likely dreamed of their futures, safe in their parents homes, their comfortable towns. Envisioned it.

Raven drew her hand down from her wound. All this time she’d been following. She thought of Quiver’s sneer on the day they’d left, his pat on her shoulder and the grip too hard. _Don’t get lost in it all,_ he’d said. _Lost in what?_ Raven had shrugged him off.

She thought of Summer and the town they’d been plucked from, the people moving with their things to recover whatever they could that had not been lost. _I’m not a hero,_ she’d told Tai. His smile had lit something in her and of that, she was afraid.

—

The night fell quickly over Beacon. Team STRQ had walked down the hall in relative silence, afraid of inquisitive passing students, and it was only when they’d finally shut the door to their small dorm that Qrow let out a tight laugh. It did not contain true humor.

“What the hell? What the hell was all of that?”

“I still don’t believe it.” Tai shook his head. No one had bothered to turn on the desk lamp or the overhead lantern. They all stood in the darkness as if to stew in it, afraid the light would break the spell of the evening.

“How can we?” Summer took a seat heavily on her bed. “I’m so sorry, everyone.” She managed. “All of this…it’s because of me. The town, this mission, now this…I should…” She folded her hands on her lap. “I should leave the academy. I’m sure you’ll get a better teammate. And Headmaster Ozpin will let you all continue as usual, none of this.”

“Out of the question.” Qrow stepped forward. “We’re a team for a reason, right?”

Summer did not look at them. Her eyes adjusting to the darkness, Raven could read the edge to everyone’s faces. The moon outside was dim, a sliver among the clouds. “All this time, training to fight the Grimm…” Tai exhaled. “And they weren’t even the real threat.”

“They’re still a threat.” Qrow shrugged. “They’re just the cronies.”

“Yeah, that’s reassuring.” Tai spat. He took a moment to reconsider. “Sorry I just…no one else knows about this, do they? Just us? Just us and the Academy leaders and other people way out of our league. It feels like we’re too close to a fire.”

They were all silent at that. “We can refuse to help.” Raven said simply. They all looked to her.

“How?” Qrow asked. “‘Nice to hear about this ultimate evil but we’ve decided to pass on fighting it, thanks.’” He held his hands up. “We chose to fight, we can’t always pick our battles.”

“ _We_ can.” Raven said, pinning him with her eyes.

Qrow glared at her, rising to his full height as he stepped away from the wall, fists clenched. “How can you say that, Raven? After all of this? How can you—”

Tai held a hand to his partner’s chest. “Hey, not here. We’ve had enough fighting today. And you two have been at each other’s throats for weeks. Look, I’ve never had siblings, but…”

“There’s something the Headmaster said…” Summer spoke into the shadows. “About the both of you not fearing death, because of…where you came from.”

Qrow tensed, shocked at the question. Raven snorted. Her patience was a fuse lit. “Because of where we were born.”

“Raven…” Qrow warned.

“We’ve been fighting Grimm for years, before either of you probably ever wanted to.”

“Raven…”

“Because we didn’t come to this stupid Academy to be huntswomen.”

Qrow’s fist slammed against the wall, a reverberation that made Summer and Tai flinch.“Raven, enough!” A crack appeared at the impact, spiderwebbing up the wall.

Silence came down heavy. Raven spun from them all. She opened the door into the cool hall. “I just…” She exhaled. “I just need a moment.” The door shut on her team.

No one followed her out.

—

Qrow would accuse her of running. He always accused her of running. Ever since they were kids. But sometimes Raven felt that anger in her digging so deep, ripping so far into her mind and rending at her heart that she…she had to leave. Because staying meant something worse.

There had been a time when Qrow had been the runner. Constantly afraid, always not wanting to fight. He was the runt of the kids. He’d been bullied, sure, as had quite a few of them. But his semblance eventually cut that short. It became avoidance which, in some ways, she imagined, was worse. But something in him changed as they grew up. Maybe it was the stories he read, ones he believed himself to be the hero of. Eventually he stopped running away and started running _toward._ Raven had had to snag a hand around his collar more than once to keep him from getting into danger.

How had she become a coward? Was it even that, cowardice?

Her footsteps in the hall were quick and light but they sounded heavy in her head, too heavy. She walked faster, trying to drown out the sounds of the day. They echoed, the memories. Shouts and screams and the Grimm’s teeth under her skin. Blood and worry and panic. Fear. She stopped and clutched at her injured arm, right at the elbow, her hand shaking. She’d been so scared. Why had she done that? Why hadn’t she _run?_

She found her way slowly to the balcony she’d spent nights on before. It was empty, like always. The night was too far along for most students to be up. The moon sat like a claw in the sky, curved against the clouds. She inhaled the sweet air and closed her eyes against the chill. Once, Summer had come to her here. And it was then she almost wanted to girl to peer from the hall, concerned. She wanted Tai to poke his head in, worried. It was a need she tried to smother.

She was so far from that camp in the woods and those warm, soft, insect-song nights.

And she did not know if she wanted them back.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you having problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems and finishing the Umbrella Academy fixed, like, 87 of them.


End file.
